College Students, get a year of HawgBeat coverage for just $11.95. Request details via email from your school account (.edu) to nchavanelle@yahoo.com.

Not a subscriber? Subscribe for free for 30 days w/code HAWGS30
NEW USERS | RETURNING USERS

SPRINGDALE — With several Arkansas players on different teams, there has been a bit of “Hog on Hog crime” in the Perfect Timing College League.

A couple of weeks ago, Matt Goodheart hit a towering home run off Peyton Pallette at the Tyson Complex, only for the freshman to get his revenge with a strikeout the following week.

On Wednesday, Kevin Kopps was the victim when Cullen Smith - who redshirted this season because of NCAA transfer rules - clobbered a pitch to straight-away center for a solo home run.

“I knew I was facing Kopps, so I knew I was going to be getting a lot of cutters, a lot of stuff that moved,” Smith said. “From the last time I faced him, he’s really been working on that 12-6 curveball I could tell because he was throwing a hammer today, but I was just sitting heater and I got one up.”

It was the first home run of the summer for Smith, who isn’t known for his power. In three seasons at East Tennessee State, the 5-foot-11, 185-pound infielder hit just 11 home runs.

However, he is a career .300 hitter with 40 doubles and three triples, giving him a .430 slugging percentage and helping him earn second-team All-SoCon honors twice.

“The most home runs I’ve hit was seven in a year,” Smith said. “I feel like I definitely have a little more in the tank, but I’d say I’m a barrel guy. I’m going to be hitting doubles, I’m going to be hitting line drives. I’ll run into a few, but I’m going to take pride in barreling balls and playing great defense.”

Eligible to play for the Razorbacks for the first time in 2021, Smith will be a fifth-year senior and figures to compete for a spot in the lineup. Where exactly he plays in the field remains to be seen.

Smith played shortstop throughout high school, was a third baseman for the Buccaneers as a freshman and then played second base his next two years. He’s moved all over the infield this summer and said he’ll be a utility guy at Arkansas.

“I feel comfortable anywhere,” Smith said. “I can play any position on the infield other than catcher - first, second, short, third. Wherever Coach (Dave) Van Horn needs me, I’ll play.”

Choosing to sit out what would have been his senior season and transferring to another school to play as a fifth-year guy makes Smith’s journey somewhat unique, but he has loved his time in Fayetteville so far.

He particularly liked working with strength and conditioning coach Blaine Kinsley, which he was doing quite a bit because he couldn’t play, but also said he loved the Razorbacks’ entire coaching staff.

“Everything they said how they were going to treat me, they have and they’ve been true to their word,” Smith said. “It’s a blessing to even be at Arkansas. The coronavirus, it sucks, but I’ve got a hitting facility back home and I’ve just been grinding, trying to get ready to play for the Hogs one last season.”

Those who saw Smith’s home run off Kopps were also treated to a pair of baseball oddities that even die-hard fans don’t see very often.

The first happened in the bottom of the second inning. With one out and runners on first and second, Curtis Washington Jr. caught a fly ball in center field and managed to pull off an unassisted double play thanks to the runner on second losing track of the outs.

“I guess he thought there was two (outs) and when the ball was hit to me in the air, he just took off running,” Washington said. “He was almost home when I caught it and I looked down and was like, ‘I’m just going to go tag him out at second.’ I didn’t even throw it.”

Although he has done it while playing in the infield, it was the first time he turned an unassisted double play from the outfield.