College pitcher has historic outing against top team

Hagen Smith was one of the top prospects in the 2024 MLB Draft before he threw his first pitch in Friday night’s game against Oregon State. It’s safe to say that the Arkansas lefty only helped his cause.

For all intents and purposes, Smith was untouchable. He tied an Arkansas school record, striking out 17 hitters in the game. More impressive is that he needed only six innings to accrue those 17 strikeouts.

Each of the first 15 outs — and 17 of the 18 — that Smith recorded in the game came by way of the strikeout.

He finished the game allowing only three hits and one walk in six shutout innings.

Ordinarily, throwing six innings might point to a high pitch count, this was more likely due to it still being early in the season. Smith was economical with his pitches while striking out nearly everyone he faced, needing only 78 pitches to get through the six innings.

And while some performances in early-season games need to be taken with a grain of salt due to the competition, that was far from the case on Friday. Oregon State is one of the country’s best teams and had been particularly strong on offense during the early part of the season.

The baseball world was in complete awe of Smith’s performance.

Smith, a junior at Arkansas, was ranked as the No. 15 MLB Draft prospect before Friday’s outing. Expect him to shoot up in those rankings.

[Photo Credit: FloSports]