HawgBeat - Hagen Smith breaks NCAA record for strikeouts per nine innings
Arkansas ace left-hander Hagen Smith added another record to his legacy.
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Arkansas ace left-hander Hagen Smith's season might have finished early exit in the Fayetteville Regional, but he was able to add another record to his historic year before Southeast Missouri State eliminated the Razorbacks from postseason play Sunday.
In a season that he passed former Hog Nick Schmidt (2003-06) as the Razorbacks' strikeout king and David Walling (1999) as the new single-season strikeout record holder, Smith also passed former Houston pitcher Ryan Wagner (2003, 16.79 K/9) for the most strikeouts per nine innings (17.25 K/9) in a single season in NCAA Division I baseball history.
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"He’s one of the best pitchers I’ve ever had," Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said after Sunday's elimination loss to SEMO. "He’s such a difference-maker for our team. Without him pretty much taking us 5, 6, 7 innings in Game 1 of every SEC series and giving us an opportunity to save our bullpen. Most of time we end up winning that game and we’d find a way to win another game. Swept a few series here."
The 2024 SEC Pitcher of the Year, Smith struck out 161 batters across 84.0 innings pitched in what was more-than-likely his third and final season as a Razorback. He posted a 9-2 record and a 2.04 ERA with just 34 walks.
"You take Hagen Smith away from us and we’re just pretty average," Van Horn said. "We fielded the ball really good this year. I think we probably fielded .982, which is probably in the top three or four in the country. We didn’t make very many mistakes.
"For three quarters of the season we didn’t walk anybody and that’s why we won a lot of games. We just played really solid baseball. We weren’t real exciting to watch, so to speak, all the time, unless you like pitching and defense. But that’s what we had."
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Smith was a Freshman All-American in 2022, he was the team's "wild card" as a no-doubt All-American in 2023 and he became the nation's top pitcher for the Razorbacks this spring.
"I have talked with him and he’s going to be high first round pick," Van Horn said. "So to speak I think the hay was in the barn, even though his last couple outings weren’t great. If he had two great outings, that might’ve messed up some people but I think he’ll be one of the top 10 picks.
"Could be second, third, will probably be fifth or sixth will be my guess. I honestly just think he ran out of gas even though we rested him a lot this year. We kept an inning back from him, we were hoping to get it last night. Didn’t happen."
A 6-foot-3, 225-pound native of Bullard, Texas, Smith never pitched more than 7.0 innings in a game this year, and the most pitches he threw in an outing was 105. His last start was unfortunately his worst of the season, as he was tagged for six runs — all in one inning — on four hits with four walks and seven strikeouts in Saturday's loss to Kansas State.
"You take him off our team and we’re just really average," Van Horn reiterated. "That’s the way it is. One guy can make a difference. You’ve got kids that are jumping around in the portal and teams are paying these kids — somebody is — and you snag a guy and he pitches you to the World Series or he hits you to the World Series. It happened last year (with LSU)."
Highlights of Smith's incredible season include a 17-strikeout performance against Oregon State on Feb. 23, seven innings and no earned runs against Florida on April 26 and 14 strikeouts with just one earned run allowed at Kentucky on May 3.
“His average fastball was 98," South Carolina head coach Mark Kingston said April 19. "He threw a slider for strikes all night, and that’s why he’s going to be the first pitcher off the board for the Major League draft. He’s done that to everybody this year, and we were no different.”
MLB Pipeline's latest mock draft has Smith projected to go No. 7 overall to the St. Louis Cardinals in this year's draft, which will begin July 14 in Fort Worth, Texas.
