Hagen Smith is the record-holder for career strikeouts at Arkansas.
The junior left-hander struck out his 346th batter in the fifth inning vs. Texas A&M on Thursday to surpass previous No. 1 Nick Schmidt, who struck out 345 from 2005-07.
Smith’s strikeout of Aggies shortstop Ali Camarillo was his 11th of the game and 147th of the season.
Smith is climbing the program leaderboard for most strikeouts in a single season, too. He entered Thursday’s game at No. 3 with 136 strikeouts this year and surpassed Schmidt, who was at No. 2 with 145. David Walling is the record-holder with 155 during the 1999 season.
After finishing his six-inning start against the Aggies with 14 strikeouts, Smith’s season total sits at 150 and his career total at 349.
Smith entered Thursday leading the country in ERA (1.65), strikeouts per nine innings (17.24) and hits allowed per nine innings (4.18).
“He’s been amazing, in one word,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said during the ESPN2 broadcast. “He’s been very consistent. He’s the same every week in his routine to get ready, just very level-headed, very mature. He’s the best I’ve ever had, probably.”
