Hogs move to No. 1 in polls, but Van Horn probably doesn’t care

It’s a good bet Dave Van Horn knows Arkansas was moved to the top spot in Monday morning’s college baseball polls and probably shrugged it off.

Fans will care about a March poll that means nothing in May.

Van Horn probably doesn’t.

“I’ll be more than happy to comment if it happens,” he said after finishing the sweep of Southeast Missouri over the weekend. “I don’t have anything to say about it because it hasn’t happened.”

He was smiling when he said that, by the way. Van Horn knew.

But the truth is he knows it’s a long way to May.

“We need to work on some things,” Van Horn said Sunday. “I feel good about where we’re at.”

The latest edition of both the D1 Baseball and Baseball America Top 25 polls has the Hogs ranked No. 1 in the country after Ole Miss lost two of three games over the weekend to Central Florida.

Arkansas was ranked No. 8 in the preseason by D1 Baseball and slotted in at sixth by Baseball America but has earned a spot at the top of the rankings quickly after an impressive opening weekend at the State Farm College Baseball Showdown.

Van Horn, who is building what has become probably the most consistently strong team in college baseball over the last few years and the last piece to the puzzle is closing out a national championship.

Right now, though, he’s just trying to figure out this team.

“I feel good about our team, where we’re at,” Van Horn said. “Obviously, the bottom line is you need to win games, and we’ve been winning them. Whether we played real well or just OK, we found a way to win a couple games where were were behind these first seven.”

Arkansas will play next against Murray State in a three-game series starting Friday at Baum-Walker Stadium.

The Hogs travel to Louisiana Tech for a weekend series March 12-14 and play a single game on Tuesday, March 16, at home against Oklahoma before opening SEC play at Alabama March 19-21.