No. 2 Arkansas wins game featuring heavyweight battle of MLB prospects

Hagen Smith.

In a heavyweight battle between two of the hottest MLB prospects, No. 2 Arkansas and pitcher Hagen Smith came away victorious against Jac Caglianone and Florida.

Caglianone, who has hit 25 home runs in 40 games with a batting average over .400, is ranked the No. 3 prospect in this year’s MLB draft. Smith, who struck out 11 batters on Friday night, is ranked the No. 6 prospect for this summer’s draft.

While Caglianone did notch a hit in Friday’s series opener, it was Smith who got the better of Caglianone and the rest of his Gators teammates, throwing seven innings of two-hit baseball. Florida did score during Smith’s time on the mound, but it came on an error and counts as an unearned run.

Smith’s 11 strikeouts make Friday’s outing his eighth double-digit strikeout game of the season and his ninth quality start. With the performance, Smith’s ERA drops to 1.35 through 60 innings of work, with the southpaw only giving up nine earned runs on the season.

Arkansas’ offense could only muster three hits, but a Ryder Helfrick solo shot and a Jared Sprague-Lott sac fly got in the two runs Arkansas needed to take Game 1 and improve it record to 36-6, including 15-4 in conference play.

The Hogs and Gators will play a doubleheader tomorrow to determine the series with first pitch for the first game set for 1 p.m. ET. The game will air on SEC Network+.

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