When Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn and the Diamond Hogs make their season debut on Feb. 16 against James Madison, left-handed pitcher Hagen Smith will almost certainly take the mound as the Razorbacks' ace.
The 6-foot-3, 225-pound junior was one of the best pitchers in the country last season, as he accumulated an 8-2 win/loss record and a 3.64 ERA in 71.2 IP. Smith struck out 109 batters, held hitters to a .217 batting average and allowed 42 walks.
Picked as a Preseason First-Team All-American by Perfect Game, Smith joined former Virginia pitcher Stephen Schoch on the Schoch Factor Podcast to talk about his journey to Fayetteville and his exitement for the upcoming season.
Here are some things that Smith had to say during the show, including his offseason routine the recruiting process, Arkansas' facilities, pitching in different roles, playing for Team USA and the SEC environments he's looking forward to playing in.
On his offseason routine:
Smith: Yeah, so right now, there are two pitcher groups that are going. Most of the older guys and some of the guys that were here last year are a week ahead than the youger guys in the throwing program, so we're (doing) short-box or pin, whatever you like. And we're like 80%, 90% bullpen. We're starting lives this week so that should be pretty fun.
Our strength coach gives us pre-programs, he added this winter thing, gave us a piece of paper for everything. For our throwing stuff, some dude — I don't know why he's here — one of our assistant coaches, he's super smart, he went off the torque in our elbow on each pitch and so for our bullpens we had a reason to throw this many pitches or this many fastballs because of your torque. It's crazy. He's good at dumbing it down too which is good.
On his recruiting process:
Smith: I was actually originially committed to Oklahoma State until my sophomore year of high school maybe, and then I reopened and eventually committed to Arkansas. Actually, it was kind of funny because my mom's side of the family is from south Arkansas. Which, I guess that never registered in my head growing up but I ended up coming here, it was kind of funny.
I think I was at a tournament at Oklahoma State, threw a pretty decent outing. I can't remember what the rules were back then, but a few phone calls and I was like, "Let's do it." I was super excited excited and I was super young. And so when I decommitted, I was like, "I'm going to take my time and go to every school." Go to the schools that I want to see and take my time, not rush anything.
Ultimately Arkansas was the coolest place that I've ever been to, so it was awesome.
On Arkansas' facilities and "Thanksgiving Throwdown":
Smith: We have this thing called the Fowler Center. So, it's weird, we have indoor tracks on the left side, and there's a middle with all of their national championship trophies and there's like our full indoor infield because we have a bunch of cages and stuff, I guess that's pretty cool. It feels so big, it's weird though because it's kind of deceptive. It's super tall so it looks way bigger.
Our PFP's are actually pretty fun for the most part, we usually start out with ground balls from short, third, second, first, we turn double plays, we do the normal stuff after that. This year we had this thing called Thanksgiving Throwdown that we always do with the pitching staff. There's four captains, we draft teams, we just do these random competitions. It was funny, I remember we drafted Austin (Ledbetter) who was on our team. It was a football competition and we lost.
On playing different roles as a freshman:
Smith: Yeah, so I remember my first start as a freshman — we lost the very first game of the season, so I was like "Oh god," I was a little nervous, but, I don't get that nervous that often. I was kind of nervous for that start obviously.
It was getting into a routine and then just getting off the routine at the end of the year and going to the bullpen. I remember my first bullpen outing, it was at Alabama and I came in and gave up a bomb or something, someone stole on me and it was just bad. Then after that I just talked with the older guys in the bullpen and tried to figure out what works for them and try to implement that.
It was fun pitching in the bullpen, I think it helped me a lot honestly. Because when you're in the bullpen you're so free, and so I think that helped me as a starter, that mindset. Just kind of blending those two together helped me a lot.
On pitching in Omaha:
Smith: It was kind of surreal honestly, that was the weirdest game ever to me. So, when I started the whole year I just always went to the dugout. So I was like, "I'm going to stay in the bullpen this time," because I had been in the bullpen up to that point. And so during catch-play, I actually changed my slider grip to what my slider grip is now. I was like, "Okay that's way better than normal," and so I threw a bullpen and just ran out there.
One of the most annoying things about Omaha — nothing is really annoying — is the beach balls. I think that happens a lot.
On playing for Team USA and developing his splitter:
Smith: It was really, really cool honestly. Just seeing the guys, what they do on and off the field, that was probably the coolest thing to me, just what gets them going. And then watching the guys play, the best of the best go out there, I like watching their BPs, super fun too.
Yeah, so I actually helped learn my splitter grip from there. I can't remember the pitching coach name, (Thomas) Eager, right, from Stanford? He was talking to the Japan team, their pitching coach, he was asking him how they threw their splitter and he was showing me. Because I've always had an okay changeup, so I kept playing around with it and finally found one, the perfect way to split my fingers.
On his favorite SEC environments and Baum-Walker:
Smith: Baum is really cool, LSU is really cool even though we got our butts kicked. Mississippi State is really cool, I like that a lot. When we there they were feeding us sausage and everything, I had to walk away.
(Baum-Walker) is special. I can't describe it. You go up to a midweek, long day of class, there's like six or seven thousand people there on a midweek. Midweeks can get a little draggy but it's fun when the fans are all there. especially on the weekends. Big weekend series, it's packed, doesn't matter with weather or anything.
On freshmen to watch out for and his velocity:
Smith: There's a lot. Freshmen-wise, probably Hunter Dietz or Gabe Gaeckle. Hitters, Ryder Helfrick and then honestly who impressed me the most is Wehiwa (Aloy), he was really good.
It's weird, last year I threw hard but not as hard as before. Like, I threw hard one time last year and it was in Arlington. And now in my bullpens, you know what you throw in bullpens, I get on it a little too much. Two of the biggest things that I really wanted to do, after summer ball I wanted to put on good weight. So, I just started taking diets seriously. And then refining my mechanics and stuff like that.
