The stands at Charles Schwab Field were emptying, and Murray State players wanted to savor their program’s first College World Series as long as they could.

Murray State won a regional at Ole Miss and a super regional at Duke to become the fourth No. 4 seed to make it to Omaha. The Racers are led by Dan Skirka, the national coach of the year who had a pit stop at Ouachita Baptist early in his coaching career.

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.

Dan Tauken doesn't have any NIL deals, and didn't expect many perks playing baseball for Murray State. The Racers outfielder yearned for just one thing: cup holders. Murray State bused everywhere from its campus in Kentucky during the 2025 regular season,

The Arkansas Razorbacks have an tough path ahead of them now if they want to make it to the Men’s College World Series championships. They lost to LSU 4-1 on Saturday night and were sent to the loser’s bracket.

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.