Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn and the players will replay this series over and over in their minds for the rest of their lives.

National championships are so elusive, and the Hogs let what would have been their first ever national title slip away.

Oregon State beat Arkansas 5-0 in Thursday night’s final game of the best-of-three series. And while we can talk about the Hogs’ lifeless bats in game three — or more Oregon State’s dominant pitching, it will be game two that will keep everyone up at night for a long, long time. The Hogs hit just .150 in the College World Series finals, and OSU pitcher Kevin Abel retired 20 straight to end the game. It was the first time Arkansas had been shut out the entire season.

Yes, Oregon State is the best team in college baseball, with three first-round picks, but the way it slipped away Wednesday night will haunt the Hogs forever.

Arkansas is loaded for the future with the core of their lineup returning in 2019: 3B Casey Martin, LF Heston Kjerstad and CF Dominic Fletcher. All three should be first-round picks. The Hogs will likely make another run at a championship before their careers are over, too, but this one will sting for a while.

The Razorbacks’ ninth trip to Omaha was no better than the previous eight, and we’ll have to wait until 2019 to see if the Hogs can make it back and avenge this series loss.