By Nate Allen
Special to the News-Times
FAYETTEVILLE - Any time Arkansas plays Texas in anything, it seems the Arkansas team involved gets subjected to decades and decades of their Southwest Conference past.
Enough already, these Arkansas Razorbacks think as their opening College World Series date looms against the Longhorns looms at 2 p.m. Sunday on ESPN at Ameritrade Stadium in Omaha.
Even a living direct descendant of the Southwest Conference past between the Razorbacks and Longhorns, senior Arkansas second baseman Carson Shaddy, the son of Chris Shaddy, a three-year Razorbacks letterman and the 1982 Razorbacks shortstop when Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn was the second baseman for retired Razorbacks coach Norm DeBriyn, implies put a cork on it.
Carson went through it back in March before eventual SEC West co-champion Arkansas beat eventual Big 12 champion Texas 13-4 and 7-5 back on March 13-14 at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville.
So preceding 100 or so fans wishing the Hogs well before their bus headed to the airport from Baum for their flight to Omaha, Shaddy minimized his reply to a question if his dad relayed any of his experiences and feelings about Texas.
“Yeah, but that’s not something that needs to be said to the media,” Carson said. “Just trying to make it another ballgame. I don’t want to bring anything else into the game that we don’t need to bring. We’re going to have a lot of distractions and whatnot, so just going to try to go out and play our best ball.”
A questioner persisted.
“I know it was a heated rivalry,” Shaddy said. “But like I said earlier, we’re just trying to make this a baseball game. I don’t want to bring in any other distractions.”
One all in the family moment that Carson willingly shares is knowing he and his dad will spend Father’s Day together.
Chris, a Toronto Blue Jays draftee and eight-year minor league infielder who reached Triple-A in his last two pro seasons, will be watching his son playing for the Hogs at the College World Series.
“I was talking to my dad last night and I said, ‘Dad, you want anything for Father’s Day?'" Carson said. “He hadn’t told me anything yet and he usually does. He said, ‘You’ve done enough. Just buy me a box of Cracker Jacks and I’ll watch you and that will be my Father’s Day present.' So it means a lot to me. My dad has a lot do with why I’m here and who I am.”
Carson will get his pro shot after Omaha after being selected in the 10th round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Washington Nationals.
Shaddy and Luke Bonfield, the designated hitter and fellow senior, both played for the 2015 Razorbacks team that last got to Omaha and last year’s Razorbacks that lost to Missouri State in the Fayetteville Regional winner-take-all final.
In between, they played on the only losing Arkansas team in Van Horn’s 16 coaching seasons.
The 2016 Hogs went 26-29 overall and 7-23 in the SEC, losing their final 13 games.
Current top three Arkansas starters, junior right-hander Blaine Knight, who was named first-team All-America by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, junior lefty Kacey Murphy and third-year sophomore right-hander Isaiah Campbell, who was redshirted last year because of injuries, debuted as freshmen on that 2016 team.
Junior catcher Grant Koch and junior right fielder and red-hot leadoff hitter Eric Cole also labored throughout that 2016 season of lost causes.
“Yeah, the guys on that team that were in my class,” Campbell said. "We kind of joke about that year. That we were the laughingstock of Arkansas baseball. But it’s been awesome seeing the turnaround. And now going to Omaha, it’s a dream come true.”
Van Horn says it’s always a dream ascending to Omaha.
He should know making his seventh CWS trip, twice with Nebraska and now five times with Arkansas.
He says that it ought to be just as thrilling for assistant coaches Nate Thompson and Wes Johnson as it a thrilling first for all the players except 2015 CWS veterans Bonfield and Shaddy.
Van Horn said he hasn’t forgotten his former hitting coach, Tony Vitello, Tennessee’s head coach since the summer of 2016 and retired pitching coach Dave Jorn, and their impact in the recruiting and development of all but the true freshmen on this Arkansas team.
He communicated thanks to both once Arkansas cinched its super regional Monday night.
This afternoon, the Razorbacks get a 50-minute workout introduction to Ameritrade Stadium and attend a fireworks show tonight in Omaha.