FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas junior Hagen Smith was named the National Pitcher of the Year on Wednesday by the College Baseball Foundation.
The honor continued a rich postseason for the decorated junior, who is regarded as one of the top pitchers available for the Major League Baseball Draft next month in Arlington, Texas.
Smith, a left-hander from Bullard, Texas, won the honor, considered the Cy Young Award of baseball, over Florida State’s Jamie Arnold, Wake Forest’s Chase Burns, Dallas Baptist’s Ryan Johnson and East Carolina’s Trey Yesevage, the other finalists.
A first-team All-SEC choice and the SEC pitcher of the year, Smith has already been named the Pitcher of the Year by Perfect Game and earned first-team All-American honors from Perfect Game and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association of American.
Smith is a finalist with Georgia’s Charlie Condon and Oregon State’s Travis Bazzana for the Golden Spikes Award, given to the best player in college baseball, which will be announced on Saturday. He was also a finalist for the Dick Howser Trophy, which Condon won last Friday.
This season, Smith finished with a 9-2 record and a 2.04 earned-run average with an NCAA-record 17.3 strikeouts per nine innings. He also led the nation with 4.4 hits allowed per nine innings.
In SEC play, Smith notched a 7-0 record with a 1.35 ERA and 110 strikeouts in 60 innings over 10 starts. He had 161 strikeouts to break David Walling’s Arkansas single-season record of 155 from 1999. Smith also had 360 career strikeouts to surpass Nick Schmidt’s previous record of 345.
Smith also tied the UA single-game strikeout record with 17 on just 78 pitches in six shutout innings in a win over Oregon State at the Kubota College Baseball Series in Arlington, Texas, on Feb. 23. He tied the record held by Jess Todd, who did it on 118 pitches against South Carolina at the 2007 SEC Tournament.
Smith is the second Arkansas pitcher to win the College Baseball Foundation award, joining Kevin Kopps (2021).
Award winners
A list of the players named as Pitcher of the Year by the College Baseball Foundation:
2024 Hagen Smith, Arkansas
2023 Paul Skenes, LSU
2022 Cooper Hjerpe, Oregon State
2021 Kevin Kopps, Arkansas
2020 No award (Covid-19 pandemic)
2019 Ethan Small, Mississippi State
2018 Luke Heimlich, Oregon State
2017 Steven Gingery, Texas Tech
2016 Eric Lauer, Kent State
2015 Carson Fulmer, Vanderbilt
2014 Aaron Nola, LSU
2013 Jonathan Gray, Oklahoma
2012 Mark Appel, Stnaford
2011 Trevor Bauer, UCLA
2010 Alex Wimmers, Ohio State
2009 Stephen Strasburg, San Diego State