Kopps adds pair of major awards to trophy case
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FAYETTEVILLE — Kevin Kopps’ trophy case just got more crowded.
It was announced Friday that the right-hander has won the 2021 Dick Howser Trophy as the best player in college baseball this season. He was also tabbed the winner of the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Award as the top reliever.
Although he is the 12th pure pitcher to win the Dick Howser Trophy since it was created in 1987, Kopps is the first relief pitcher to take home the honor. He is also just the second Arkansas player to do so, joining Andrew Benintendi, who won it in 2015.
Along with the Golden Spikes Award, for which Kopps is also a semifinalist, the Dick Howser Trophy is one of the most prestigious awards in college baseball. All but five of the previous 32 winners have reached the big leagues and two of those are still active in the minors, awaiting their call-up.
The Stopper of the Year Award was created in 2005 and Kopps is the first Arkansas player to win it.
Despite his last pitch being the home run that ultimately ended Arkansas’ season in the super regional, Kopps had one of the best seasons by a reliever in college baseball history in 2021.
He leads all qualified Division I pitchers with a 0.90 ERA and 0.76 WHIP. In the 10 years since the NCAA started tracking WHIP, only two players have led the country in both of those categories - Oregon State’s Luke Heimlich and Southern Miss’ Nick Sandlin in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
The fact that Kopps is even qualified for those leaderboards is impressive, as it requires pitching an average of at least one inning per game. He finished the year with a team-high 89 2/3 innings and appeared in 33 of the Razorbacks’ 63 games.
Opponents hit just .162 against Kopps, who also rarely issued free passes. He had only 18 walks this season for an average of 1.81 per nine innings - a mark that was tied for 72nd nationally.
Most of his other national rankings were much better than that. His 131 strikeouts - which are third on the UA single-season list - rank seventh among DI pitchers, while his rate of 13.15 strikeouts per nine innings ranks 16th before the College World Series.
Kopps also allowed only 5.02 hits per nine innings and posted a 7.28 strikeout-to-walk ratio, which rank ninth and 11th in the country, respectively. His 12 victories are tied for third nationally and his 11 saves are tied for 10th, while both marks cracked the UA single-season top-10 lists.
What strengthened his case for all the accolades he’s received, though, is that he compiled those numbers as the workhorse of Arkansas’ staff. He frequently pitched twice per weekend, going multiple innings each time.
In back-to-back series against Georgia and Tennessee, Kopps threw 110-plus pitches across two outings of 3-plus innings with only one day of rest in between.
That set the stage for a herculean effort in the Fayetteville Regional, in which he threw 185 pitches in 13 1/3 scoreless innings across three games in a four-day span.
Kopps was sensational even in his lone loss of the season. Making his first start of 2021, he worked into the ninth inning of Game 3 in the Fayetteville Super Regional and allowed only three earned runs on seven hits and three walks while striking out nine. He threw 118 pitches in that outing despite throwing 21 in two perfect innings the day before.
In addition to the Dick Howser Trophy and NCBWA Stopper of the Year Award, Kopps has also been named the SEC Pitcher of the Year, Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Year, College Baseball Foundation Pitcher of the Year and Perfect Game/Rawlings Sports National Pitcher of the Year, plus he’s a unanimous first-team All-American.
Kopps is also a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award, which will announce its list of finalists next week and the winner next month.