Hagen Smith records 346th career strikeout, sets new Arkansas program record

Hagen Smith put himself in the history books Thursday night with his performance against Texas A&M. The Arkansas standout notched his 11th strikeout of the night – and in the process, set a new record.

Smith caught Ali Camarillo looking for the second out of the inning, and it was the 346th strikeout of his career. That moved him past Nick Schmidt for the all-time lead in Arkansas program history as he continued to dominate this season.

All told, Smith finished the night with 14 strikeouts through six scoreless innings, allowing just two hits as Arkansas and Texas A&M battled it out in a pitchers’ duel to start the final series of the regular season. He entered Thursday’s game with a perfect 9-0 record in 13 starts to go with 136 strikeouts – including a program-record 17 Ks against Oklahoma State earlier this month, which tied the previous mark.

He also drew some high praise from Texas A&M head coach Jim Schlossnagle, who put Smith in elite company as he looked back on his coaching career.

“I was just saying in the dugout, I don’t remember – 35 years, I’ve faced plenty of really good lefties, but I don’t remember a starter with this kind of arm,” Schlossnagle said on the ESPN2 broadcast. “That last pitch to [Hayden] Schott, holy cow. That shouldn’t be legal.

“But I think it’s just a matter of, especially the right-handed hitters, you’ve got to be able to lay off the pitch. [Gavin] Grahovac swung at a ball four, [Jackson] Appell swung at a ball four. Easier said than done, but you’ve just got to get him on the plate.”

Smith has been a nightmare for opposing hitters this year and enters the series as MLB.com’s No. 6 overall prospect and No. 1-ranked pure pitcher. He continued that dominance in a big way to start Thursday’s series opener as the rain fell in College Station, and he’ll look to keep it going as Arkansas gets ready to head to Hoover for the SEC Tournament next week.

Arkansas is in prime position ahead of the conference championship. On3’s Jonathan Wagner ranked the Razorbacks third in his latest College Baseball Power Rankings, and Dave Van Horn’s group was one of the top eight seeds in On3’s updated Hosting Picture earlier this week. The SEC Tournament will get us one step closer to the NCAA Tournament, though, as things start to get clearer ahead of the road to Omaha.