HawgBeat - Arkansas gives Hagen Smith shorter outing in Hoover
Arkansas ace Hagen Smith saw a shorter outing Thursday morning against Kentucky in the SEC Tournament.
arkansas.rivals.com
HOOVER, Ala. — Arkansas' 9-6 loss to Kentucky that eliminated the Razorbacks from the SEC Tournament on Thursday began with an uncharacteristic start from ace left-hander Hagen Smith.
The 2024 SEC Pitcher of the Year, Smith threw just 36 pitches across two innings and he surrender two unearned runs in the shortened outing. Smith allowed two hits, walked one and struck out four.
"Yeah, I think probably a little amped up, leaving some things up, fastball up," head coach Dave Van Horn said postgame of Smith's outing. "Just not real sharp. I think he got a little frustrated. But that's about what we wanted him to throw right there, 35, 40 pitches, two to three innings, max.
"And we thought, 'Hey, that's enough.' So give him a little opportunity to have a couple days' rest more than normal leading into next weekend. But, yeah, Hagen is Hagen. He's good. He'll be ready to go."
Things didn't start great for Smith, who issued a leadoff walk to begin his outing and then he was credited with an error on a failed pickoff attempt right after.
"Hagen tried to quick pick and threw it wide," Van Horn said. "He's one of the best fielding pitchers I've ever had, and just threw him into scoring position there after a walk. Frustrated him a little bit."
The Wildcats plated their first run on a one-out RBI sacrifice bunt, and they quickly added their second via a throwing error down the third base line by catcher Hudson White. Smith responded with back-to-back strikeouts to get out of the first inning.
Smith's second inning was much cleaner, as he worked around a one-out single to retire the other three batters he faced, plus he picked up two more strikeouts in the frame.
One of the bigger concerns for the native of Bullard, Texas, was some thought his average fastball velocity could've been down, but he touched 96 miles per hour from what HawgBeat saw on the SEC Network broadcast. There did seem to be discrepancies between the TV radar gun and outfield scoreboard radar, which caused some confusion.
On the season now, Smith owns a 1.48 ERA with 30 walks and 154 strikeouts across 15 starts and 79.0 innings pitched. He's given up 13 earned runs on 37 hits, plus he's just two strikeouts away from being the new single season strikeout record holder at Arkansas (David Walling struck out 155 in 1999).
Arkansas now turns its attention to the reveal of the full NCAA Tournament field, which will be released live Monday at 11 a.m. CT on ESPN2. The Razorbacks are a virtual lock to be a top-8 national seed, which would allow them to host a regional at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville next weekend.
"They will get back and rest up just a little bit," Van Horn said. "Message out there was, this is where we wanted to be as far as we know we're going to be in a regional, a really good opportunity to host. It's time to take a step forward. We kind of went backward a couple weeks ago, sideways. We've been up and down. We need to make a move and finish this thing up the right way."
