Each year removed from game two of the 2018 College World Series championship against Oregon State feels like cutting open scar tissue over again. When fans finally feel like this could be the year, everything that this Arkansas baseball team had become leading up to the most important game of the season is undone.

OMAHA, Neb. — The foundation for Murray State baseball coach Dan Skirka included a pit stop in Southwest Arkansas. In 2009, Skirka was just a couple of years removed from a standout playing career as a shortstop at Grand Valley State when he spent a year as a graduate assistant at Ouachita Baptist in Arkadelphia.

The Murray State Racers outlasted Duke to make the first College World Series in program history with a win June 9.

College World Series odds, picks, predictions, TV channel for Arkansas Razorbacks vs Murray State Racers NCAA baseball game on Monday, June 16.

Murray State and No. 15 UCLA saw their first action of the 2025 Men's College World Series on Saturday, where the former’s ongoing Cinderella story hit a bit of a snag in Game 3 after the Bruins’ 6-4 win.

Murray State took a chance on a 33-year-old junior college assistant. Seven years later, Skirka has the Racers on the sport's biggest stage.