From @masonchoate
A year removed from Hagen Smith's historic season on the mound for Arkansas, the Razorbacks will have a new left-handed pitcher wearing the No. 33 jersey this season.
Following Smith's SEC Pitcher of the Year campaign in the spring of 2024, the dominant lefty pitcher was selected fifth overall by the Chicago White Sox in the Major League Baseball Draft.
It's unfair to ask anyone to replace Smith's 2.04 ERA and 161 strikeouts, but the Hogs did about as good as they could by landing transfer portal gem Zach Root from East Carolina. Rated as D1Baseball's No. 2 impact transfer pitcher, Root started 12 games as a sophomore last season last season and logged a 3.56 ERA with 76 strikeouts and 21 walks across 68.1 innings.
It's worth noting that Root would've pitched more if he didn't have an arm injury that bothered him in the 2023 season. He was available all of the 2024 fall for the Diamond Hogs, and he did get hit around a little bit.
Across five total appearances, four of which were starts, Root had an 11.37 ERA after giving up eight earned runs on 14 hits in 6.1 innings pitched in the fall, according to stats compiled by local media. He walked one and struck out four of the 34 total batters he faced.
"I feel like he’s fine," Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said Oct. 10. "His stuff’s good. A lot of times these guys come in there that have transferred in and they’re a little nervous. It’s all new for them. Even though they have experience, they need to go through that a little bit. I think you can credit our offense. I think our offense is pretty good. They took advantage of some mistakes."
Root logged a strong finish to the fall after Van Horn's previous quote, as Root struck out four and walked none across two innings of action in the Oct. 11 exhibition against Oklahoma State. Root came on in relief of right-hander Gabe Gaeckle, who tossed one inning to start the game, and then the lefty from East Carolina allowed just one unearned run on one hit in his action.
While he has to prove it this spring, the expectation is for Root to play a big role as a starter for pitching coach Matt Hobbs' staff. Van Horn credited Hobbs' reputation as a big reason why the Hogs were able to land Root, plus highly-touted Ohio State transfer left-hander Landon Beidelschies.
"They want to pitch for Coach Hobbs," Van Horn said Sept. 3. "They like what they’ve seen from the development of our high school pitchers, or maybe even a guy like (Hagen) Smith, who turned down maybe $1 million coming out of high school and got $8 million. Appreciate those guys, but they had some options. Many, many, many options.
"They could have gone to our league. We would have had to try to beat them, and you know, they came in here because they wanted to be a part of the Arkansas program. Like I said, be with Coach Hobbs, and I think they just wanted to be on a team with a great pitching staff, and that’s what we foresee."
Hagen Smith sported the No. 33 jersey as a left-handed pitcher last season, as did left-hander Nick Schmidt, who posted 135 strikeouts and a 2.98 ERA in a historic 2006 season for Van Horn's team. Van Horn was asked by HawgBeat in September if there was any specific reason why Root was given the No. 33 jersey.
“For the most part, I have had, a lot of left hander pitchers that have worn that," Van Horn said. "Nick Schmidt. Did Drew Smyly wear that number? (He did) Might have been another one in there. Might have ben a couple of more.
“It is a left-handed pitcher's number in my eyes and he’s left-handed. Landon (Beidelschies) had already requested No. 35 and he got it. Then I talked to Zach about it and he kind of knew there had been some guys wearing that that were pretty good. Didn’t want to throw that on him if he didn’t want to handle it, but he was good with it.”
Root appeared in 20 games and started 13 as a freshman in 2023, when he logged a 5.33 ERA with 54 strikeouts and 27 walks in 53.2 innings. To expect him to perform on the same level as Smith and Schmidt this spring would be unfair, but it's safe to say that there's plenty of hype for Root to live up to if this team wants to go far in 2025.
The Razorbacks will open their season Friday, Feb. 14, against Washington State at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville.
