FAYETTEVILLE -- With today wrapping up No. 1 Arkansas' scheduled three-game SEC West series at Auburn, no Razorback should be thinking ahead to hosting reigning national champion LSU in next week's three-game SEC West series Thursday through Saturday at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Except one. After throwing a six-inning, three-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts vs. two walks to beat Auburn 1-0 Thursday night, sensational southpaw Hagen Smith won't pitch the remainder of this weekend. He can start thinking about his Thursday night start vs. LSU before what's bound to be an excited Baum-Walker crowd.
With rain predicted Friday it was uncertain at this Thursday night writing if Arkansas and the Auburn Tigers would try and play Friday or finish with a Saturday doubleheader.
Rain or shine, Smith -- who is 4-0 with a 1.24 earned run average and an incredible 62 strikeouts vs. 10 walks in only 29 innings -- has his pre LSU routine set Friday and today in Auburn, Ala.
"I've got a slow mobility lift [Friday] and the next day a heavy leg lift," Smith told the SEC Network.
The Tigers saw nothing slow about Smith's mobility, and they must have felt his heavy leg lift like a kick in the stomach. Particularly after he inadvertently teased them throwing three straight balls to Auburn's hitter leading off the first inning.
Smith striking out the side pooped Auburn's party.
"Smith was as good as advertised," Auburn Coach Butch Thompson said.
The Tigers did net runners at first and second leading off the fourth and loaded the bases in the sixth but for naught.
During the game the SEC Network asked Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn about Smith's ability to pitch himself out of trouble.
Van Horn replied Smith believes he can pitch through jams and "usually does."
"They got a couple of hits that one inning and I hit (by pitch) somebody in the sixth," Smith said, not mentioning a key outfield error. "It was a real close game and Auburn [ranked 23rd nationally] is a real good team, so it was good for us to get out of that."
Smith of Bullard, Texas, was precociously outstanding as a 2022 freshman All-American and 2023 All-American and Golden Spikes semifinalist.
But this season his work advances from admirable to amazing.
"Just going back to before this season working on mechanics and getting stronger," Smith said. "I gained 15 pounds."
Mainly weights or milkshakes?
"A little bit of both,' Smith told the SEC Network. "I am going to have one night."
He ought to save one for shortstop Wehiwa Aloy, whose first-inning 3-2 count opposite field home run comprised the game's offense after leadoff man Peyton Stovall and Kendall Diggs were erased on a strikeout/caught stealing double play, and two for relievers Will McEntire, a scoreless/hitless seventh and eighth and freshman Gabe Gaeckle's scoreless/hitless ninth. They added five strikeouts to Smith's dozen.
"That was awesome for those guys to come in and do that," Smith said.