More accolades for Arkansas pitcher Hagen Smith
Award season is upon us in college baseball and Arkansas pitcher Hagen Smith is finding his name on a lot of lists.
Smith earned first team All-America honors from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) on Wednesday. He was also named National Pitcher of the Year by Perfect Game.
Already a finalist for the Dick Howser Trophy, Golden Spikes Award and National Pitcher of the Year, Smith went 9-2 with a 2.04 ERA in 16 starts spanning 84 innings in 2024.
The left-hander entered the NCAA Tournament with a 1.48 ERA, the best in college baseball among Division I starters, but was tagged for six runs in the fifth inning of Arkansas’ 7-6 loss to Kansas State in the Fayetteville Regional.
Smith still ranks fourth in ERA among DI pitchers and first in strikeouts per nine innings (17.25). He struck out a season-high 17 batters in the Razorbacks’ 5-4 win over Oregon State in the Kubota College Baseball Series at Arlington’s Globe Life Field (home of Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers) on February 23.
Smith fanned 14 batters against both Kentucky and Texas A&M in SEC play and had 10 or more strikeouts against LSU, South Carolina, Florida and Mississippi State, as well. The Bullard, Texas, native is the first two-time Arkansas All-American since Nick Schmidt in 2006-07.
On May 16 at Texas A&M, Smith passed Schmidt’s previous record of 345 strikeouts to become the Razorbacks’ all-time strikeout leader. He finished 2024 with 161 strikeouts to 24 walks and has 360 strikeouts in three seasons at Arkansas.
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