Top two coaches in the SEC give Smith glowing praise at conference tournament
HOOVER, Ala. — Despite taking his first loss in an Arkansas uniform in almost a full calendar year in a 9-6 loss to Kentucky to dump the Razorbacks out of the SEC tournament, Hagen Smith's body of work has commanded respect from the coaches across the conference.
Thankfully Mingione didn't have to worry about that as Smith lasted just two innings and turned in his shortest outing of the year since opening day. Kentucky was still able to touch him for two unearned runs and forced a throwing error on a pickoff attempt from Smith. Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn insisted that Smith was fine and it was more or less planned to take his ace out early despite his velocity being down.
That's about what we wanted him to throw right there, 35, 40 pitches, two to three innings, max. We thought, hey, that's enough. So give him a little opportunity to have a couple days' rest more than normal leading into next weekend Hagen is Hagen. He's good. He'll be ready to go." "I don't care," Mingione told his hitters. "He might strike us out 14 more times but he's going to strike us out differently."
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