Congratulation: Hagen Smith becomes First Arkansas baseball player to earn SEC Pitcher of the year….

Despite finishing the season in the top five in the country, the Diamondbacks dropped two of their final three series. Hagan Smith was a major factor in Arkansas’s success in that regard. The conference named him the SEC pitcher of the year on Monday.

Smith is only the third Razorback to get the accolade in history. The other two were Kevin Kopps in 2021 and Nick Schmidt in 2006. This season, Smith was undefeated in nine games. With Smith in the starting rotation, Arkansas’s lone setback came to Texas A&M on Friday.

Smith cemented his record as the Razorback with the most strikeouts during his game versus the Aggies. He began the season against Oregon State with 17 strikeouts, and he went on to dominate the rest of the schedule, getting double digit strikeouts in 11 games. Just two of his games included six strikeouts or less.

Smith has outperformed Pitcher of the Year winner Paul Skenes from the previous season, if not more so. Skenes had a 1.77 ERA and 17.1 strikeouts per nine innings before to the SEC Tournament. Smith’s ERA is 1.52 with an average of 17.5 strikeouts. Despite pitching less innings than Skenes (15), Smith had more walks (29) than Skenes (15), but 3.3 walks per nine innings is still very good.

Smith was an obvious candidate for Pitcher of the Year this season, given his numbers were so close to that of the previous year. With postseason success, maybe the Razorbacks can help him maintain his new record. On Wednesday, May 21, the Hogs will take on the winner of today’s Alabama-South Carolina game in Hoover.

The Hogs will almost certainly travel to Omaha as a national seed and host a super-regional after their performance in the SEC tournament.