Smith Wins National Pitcher of the Year Award
LUBBOCK, Texas – Arkansas’ Hagen Smith is the College Baseball Foundation National Pitcher of the Year.
Smith is the second Arkansas pitcher in history to win the award, joining Kevin Kopps (2021). He is also the fifth pitcher from the Southeastern Conference and the third in the last four years from the league to win the award, which will be presented at the College Baseball Foundation’s annual Night of Champions event at a date to be announced.
Smith made his case as the best pitcher in all of college baseball this season, completing the 2024 campaign with a 9-2 record, 2.04 ERA and 161 strikeouts in 84.0 innings over 16 starts. The junior left-hander, who was named the SEC Pitcher of the Year after going 7-0 with a 1.35 ERA and 110 strikeouts in 60.0 innings over 10 SEC starts on the mound, led the country with an NCAA-record 17.3 strikeouts per nine innings on the season and finished ranked first nationally in hits allowed per nine innings (4.4), second in strikeouts (161), fourth in ERA (2.04) and seventh in WHIP (0.89).
The Bullard, Texas, native posted a team-leading 11 quality starts and logged a program-record 11 double-digit strikeout games on the year, becoming the program’s all-time career strikeout king and single-season strikeout leader during his historic 2024 campaign. Smith, who raised his career strikeout total to 360, overtook Razorback great Nick Schmidt (345) for sole possession of Arkansas’ career strikeout mark in addition to surpassing Razorback great David Walling’s single-season strikeout record of 155 set in 1999 to move atop the program’s single-season strikeout leaderboard (161).
In one of the greatest pitching performances in program history, Smith tied Arkansas’ single-game record with his 17-strikeout gem on 78 pitches over six shutout innings against Oregon State on Feb. 23 in the Kubota College Baseball Series at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. Smith matched Razorback great Jess Todd’s single-game strikeout record (17), doing so in 40 fewer pitches than Todd threw against South Carolina on May 24, 2007, in the SEC Tournament.
Smith, who has also been named the Perfect Game Pitcher of the Year and finished as one of five finalists for the Dick Howser Trophy, remains in the running for the prestigious Golden Spikes Award. The Razorback ace is the sixth two-time All-American in program history after he has received first-team All-America honors from American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and Perfect Game so far this postseason.
Arkansas is one of only three schools, including LSU (2) and Oregon State (2), with multiple National Pitcher of the Year Award winners. The National Pitcher of the Year Award has been presented by the College Baseball Foundation since 2009.
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