Kingston: South Carolina 'excited for the challenge' of facing Hagen Smith
To this point, nobody has been able to solve Arkansas left-hander Hagen Smith. He’s been nearly impossible to hit all year, with few having little success against him.
He’s truly everything you could want in a pitcher. He commands the zone with a lot of strikes and mixes in some nasty off-speed pitches to catch you off balance.
But come Friday, he’ll enter one of the toughest places he’ll have to pitch all year at Founders Park. South Carolina opens a three-game series with Arkansas this weekend. Smith will be on the mound for the series opener.
Hagen Smith probably will be the first picture off the board in this year’s Major League draft,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “I look at that as a tremendous challenge. And I think our guys do as well.”
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Smith has seen tremendous strides in his game as a junior this season. He’s 7-0 with a 1.53 ERA across 47 innings. He’s struck out 89 while only walking 17, which is quite an impressive ratio.
The big thing with him is that he doesn’t make many mistakes. He’s only surrendered eight runs all year with just four home runs. There have only been two starts this year where he didn’t go at least six innings. He’s a workhorse and gives a quality outing almost every time he takes the mound.
This might not bode well for South Carolina who tends to strike out a lot. The Gamecocks are second to last in the SEC with 373 total strikeouts, only trailing Missouri.
Despite this, there’s reason to believe the offense has a shot to do some damage against Smith. They seemingly broke out of their slump with a solid showing at the plate against Florida last weekend. Now, the hope is that it will carry over.
“I think last weekend showed what we’re capable of, we scored 28 runs on the road at Florida. So I think that shows what we’re capable of,” Kingston said.
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Kingston also compared this situation with Smith to when LSU right-hander Paul Skenes pitched at Founders Park last year. Much like Smith, no one had been able to figure out Skenes’ stuff. But South Carolina crushed two homers off him as he only lasted three innings after getting hit around.
While the two aren’t exactly the same, the challenge is. If South Carolina could hit Skenes when no one else could, why can’t it do the same versus Smith on Friday?
“That’s why the SEC is so exciting because you get opportunities to play against the best,” Kingston said. “He clearly is one of the best. And I think our guys will be excited for the challenge.”
