HOOVER, Ala. — After struggling on the road most of the season, Connor Noland has turned in consecutive solid starts away from Baum-Walker Stadium.
The freshman right-hander limited Ole Miss to just one run in five innings Friday, earning yet another no decision in Arkansas’ 3-2 loss to the Rebels that eliminated it from the 2019 SEC Tournament.
With some help from his defense - a runner caught stealing by Zack Plunkett and an unassisted double play by Casey Martin - Noland actually faced the minimum through 4 2/3 innings before making his lone mistake of the day.
Kevin Graham crushed a 2-1 pitch off the scoreboard for a two-out solo home run that was one of only two hits the Rebels notched against Arkansas’ starter, who also issued just one walk while striking out two.
“Really good mix - he mixed in a few changeups…two different breaking balls, fastball with some sink,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “When he works ahead in the count, he’s really tough to figure out if you’re a hitter. I feel like he just continues to get better and better.”
It was an even better outing than the one he had a week earlier at Texas A&M, when he needed just 33 pitches to get through his first four innings. Although he ended up allowing three runs in the fifth, only one was earned.
That means Noland has given up just two earned runs in 9 1/3 innings away from home over his last two starts. He has really pitched well over the last month or so. Including a bad start at Kentucky, he has a 1.56 ERA, 0.81 WHIP and 9.7 strikeout-to-walk ratio in his last seven total starts.
When he last faced Ole Miss, Noland was still struggling to get through the fifth on a consistent basis. He gave up two earned runs on seven hits and one walk while striking out three Rebels in 4 2/3 innings.
His improvement since that outing was on display Friday night and Ole Miss leadoff man Thomas Dillard - who struck out and lined out against him - took notice.
“I think he’s made some strides, become a little bit more mature with how he pitches,” Dillard said. “He can throw all his pitches in the zone and he knows he has the defense behind him and a great offense, so I think he’s throwing more strikes.”
The turnaround has almost perfectly coincided with the end of spring football practice, meaning the two-sport athlete can focus solely on throwing the small, round white ball and not worry about the big, oblong brown ball.
As the season has progressed, Noland’s velocity has increased a bit. He credits the work he does in bullpen sessions for that and his recent effectiveness.
“I’m throwing harder in my bullpens and just working on stuff that I’m going to translate into a game,” Noland said. “That’s really been reflected in my outings and it’s helped a lot with making better stuff available for me during the game.”
Had Friday’s game against Ole Miss been a normal regular-season game, there’s a strong likelihood that Noland would have stayed in the game longer because he had thrown only 73 pitches.
However, Van Horn said beforehand that everybody would be on a pitch count and he stuck with it. Previous starters Patrick Wicklander and Isaiah Campbell threw just 69 and 71 pitches, respectively, so the limit must have been the 70-75 range.
The reasoning was that Arkansas had already virtually guaranteed itself a top-eight national seed and the veteran coach wanted to make sure his guys were rested, healthy and ready for next week’s NCAA Regional.
“We had a good plan going in, just keeping us on a pitch count,” Noland said. “Obviously we want to rest up and get ready for that regional. That’s our main focus.”
The NCAA will officially announce the 16 regional host sites at 7:30 p.m. Sunday on its website and social media accounts before revealing the entire bracket at 11 a.m. Monday on ESPNU.
SUBSCRIBE to HawgBeat and get access to exclusive prospect interviews, the best recruiting network in the industry, inside scoops on recruiting and team news, videos, podcasts and much more.
Join the discussion on THE TROUGH, the Arkansas Rivals premium message board for thousands of Hog fans.
