The No. 7 Arkansas Razorbacks (15-2) are making some changes to the starting rotation entering the first weekend of SEC play.
Diamond Hogs head coach Dave Van Horn revealed Thursday that he plans to not start left-hander Hagen Smith on Friday and he will move lefty Hunter Hollan from his Sunday role to the Friday role.
"Well, Hagen’s not starting on Friday," Van Horn said. "That would be your storyline, I guess. We’re going to start Hunter Hollan and then we’ll go with McEntire on Saturday. We’ll leave Sunday TBA."
Let's go ahead and get the elephant in the room out of the way: Hagen Smith is not hurt.
Van Horn described the sophomore as "better than ever" but they just want to shake some things up after seeing season-ending injuries sideline projected ace Jaxon Wiggins and the team's top bullpen arm in Koty Frank, along with a UCL strain keeping closer Brady Tygart out for the next four-ish weeks.
The role he described Smith as having moving forward is "wild card." He could come on in relief, he could close or he could just start Sunday depending on how things play out.
"Closer, long reliever, finisher — however you want to say it," Van Horn said. "Good pitcher in the bullpen. His numbers are great. He knows how to do it. He just wants to help the team win in any role, and I appreciate that. When you have some things happen with arms, sometimes you’ve got to make some changes, and we just felt like that might be something we needed to do this weekend."
Smith has logged four starts this season and he boasts a 3-0 record with a 1.40 ERA. He's thrown 19 1/3 innings, allowed just three earned runs on 11 hits, walked 14 and struck out a team-high 28.
He has struggled with pitch count over the past few weekends, though, as he logged 97, 105 and 86 pitches across the Eastern Illinois, Wright State and Louisiana Tech series, respectively.
While Smith was a freshman Perfect Game Freshman All-American as a starter last season and he's had a successful first four weekends this year, he also was very good out of the bullpen in the postseason last year.
The native of Bullard, Texas, earned a pair of saves in the Stillwater Regional and the Chapel Hill Super Regional. He threw 5 1/3 innings across four relief outings during the postseason (SEC Tournament, Regional and Super Regional), and he allowed just one earned run on three hits, walked one and struck out nine.
As far as Hollan and McEntire go, both have been very solid — even McEntire, who struggled to start the year.
Hollan has a 3-0 record with a 2.18 ERA. He's given up just five earned runs and 16 hits in 20 2/3 innings, while walking just six and striking out 21.
Though the left-handed transfer from San Jacinto College will be on shorter rest after starting Sunday's win over Louisiana Tech, Van Horn didn't think that would be an issue.
"Well if you go back to Sunday, he had 25 pitches, at least, more pitches in there, and we took him out at (77)," Van Horn said. "He actually likes pitching on shorter rest, he’s told us that many a time, so I feel fine about it."
After allowing five earned runs on nine hits in his first two innings pitched across two outings, McEntire now has an ERA of 3.48 in 20 2/3 innings pitched. He's allowed just four earned runs on 13 hits over his past three starts, which have all resulted in wins for him, including his complete game performance on Saturday against Louisiana Tech.
As far as potential Sunday starters go, Van Horn listed a few.
"With this staff right now, it’s going to be matchup and best available," Van Horn said. "I mean, if we haven’t used Hagen or just used him a little, that’s a possibility. I mean, we could use Dylan Carter, we could use Ledbetter, we could use Zack Morris. I mean, that’s just to name a few."
Carter has a 3.07 ERA in seven appearances. He's allowed five earned runs on 13 hits, walked three and struck out 11. Ledbetter and Morris have been up and down, but both threw well in the midweek sweep over UNLV.
Arkansas and Auburn will start things off Friday for a 4 p.m. CT first pitch at Baum-Walker Stadium. Both Saturday and Sunday's games are set to start at 2 p.m. CT. All three games will be streamed on the SEC Network Plus.
