GREENSBORO, N.C. – Arkansas ace Hagen Smith has been named the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings National Pitcher of the Year, collecting his third national pitcher of the year honor of the postseason.
Smith is the second Razorback in history to be crowned ABCA/Rawlings National Pitcher of the Year, joining Kevin Kopps (2021). Arkansas is the only program in the country with multiple winners of the pitching award, which began in 2018.
The junior left-hander, who has earned four first-team All-America accolades this postseason and became the sixth two-time All-American in school history, was previously named National Pitcher of the Year by both the College Baseball Foundation and Perfect Game. Up to this point, Smith has garnered first-team All-America praise from ABCA/Rawlings, Baseball America, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and Perfect Game in addition to finishing as one of three finalists for the prestigious Golden Spikes Award and as one of five finalists for the esteemed Dick Howser Trophy.
Smith proved to be the best pitcher in all of college baseball in 2024, completing the campaign with a 9-2 record, 2.04 ERA and 161 strikeouts in 84.0 innings over 16 starts. Named the Southeastern Conference 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, he led the country with an NCAA-record 17.25 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.