Razorbacks Pitching Staff Feeding Off Each Other with Success
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — While Hagen Smith might get all the attention nationally, the entire Razorbacks' pitching staff deserves their flowers. Arkansas pitchers finished Friday with 133 strikeouts, tops in the nation. Smith has 31 strikeouts in 13 innings, a 21.5 K/9 is unsustainable but still impressive to look at early in the season.
However, 102 of those strikeouts come from 13 other pitchers not named Hagen Smith. Seven different pitchers are already in double figures (Brady Tygart, Mason Molina, Colin Fisher, Koty Frank, Will McEntire and Gabe Gaeckle). It's a healthy intrasquad competitive fire that has been bubbling away since the fall.
"There’s competition amongst the pitchers themselves," coach Dave Van Horn said. "To me, that’s the greatest competition. That’s what makes you better when you’ve got teammates that like each other and they are competing against each other."
It's turned into quite the competition where the Razorbacks continue to mow down the opposing lineups with ease, playing off each other's stuff and consistently topping each other. Frank relieved Smith against Murray State and struck out the first two hitters on six pitches before finishing off a clean inning in just 14 pitches and another strikeout.
"It’s definitely competition," Smith said. "You saw it in the fall. We all knew everybody’s good on our staff, so it just kind of started then. We all competed the whole fall and our biggest thing is just trying to get to two strikes as fast as we can. I think that’s the biggest thing that’s helped us."
Getting to two strikes has cut down on the walks for the Razorbacks. Although not as eye-popping as the strikeout numbers, the Razorbacks also ranked inside the top 50 nationally in walks allowed.
"That’s how you win," Van Horn said. "That’s how you pitch. If you don’t walk people, you’re giving yourself a chance to stay in the game a lot longer and you’re giving your team a lot better opportunity to win the game."
Arkansas Razorbacks pitcher Gabe Gaeckle delivers a pitch in a 5-1 win over Murray State at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark.
Walt Beazley / Arkansas Communications
The bulldog mentality has filtered down to every member of ohe of the better pitching staffs under the Van Horn era. Cooper Dossett, the last of the 14 pitchers to appear in a game so far to debut, came in against Grambling and struck out the side on 17 pitches in his first outing of the young season.
"We have a great pitching staff," Dossett said. "You could argue that it’s the best in the country. I just want to do my job every time I go out there. It’s definitely a competitive pitching staff. All of us know that and we all just want to go out there and just do the best we can.”
Arkansas has had historic pitching seasons from individuals before, but in order for the Razorback staff to be truly one of a kind, it's going to take Smith, Dossett and everyone in between. Nine games in, they're well on their way.
Tygart will now follow Smith on the mound against Murray State 2 p.m. Saturday. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+.
HOG FEED:
• Hagen Smith follows historic outing with another impressive performance despite early blemish
• Strong pitcher and some timely hitting led by Jayson Jones lifts Razorbacks past Murray State
• KJ Jefferson must be licking his chops with UCF
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