Hagen Smith’s strong start, relievers close out 3-2 win over Longhorns

ARLINGTON, Texas — Hagen Smith looked like he might fit someday in a major league ballpark Friday night.

The left-hander threw five innings and only allowed one hit, striking out eight in the Razorbacks’ 3-2 win over Texas at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas, on Friday night.

In case you’re wondering that’s the home field of the Texas Rangers.

“Hagen was outstanding,” Dave Van Horn said later. “His stuff was amazing, big-league stuff — sitting in the mid-90s, left-hander with him throwing a cutter and pretty good breaking ball. Really pitched well and gave us a chance to get into the game.”

Brady Tygart, who retired each of the five hitters he faced, tgot his first save of the season and he probably won’t face more pressure than against the Longhors to close out the Hogs’ win over the team’s fans love to hate.

“He did a tremendous job,” Van Horn said about Tygart’s closing out the win. “He got off to a little bit of a slow start this spring in our scrimmages. Tonight, he was back to what he used to be, and I guess he caught up. Pitched great.”

Tygart, who wasn’t impressing many folks in spring scrimmages, solved a lot of questions on opening night.

“Everybody knows him for having a really good breaking ball,” Van Horn said, “but he’s got a two-seamer now that really darts, throwing the ball 93, 94, 95 mph and he throws that breaking ball in there, plus he’s got a big breaking ball and got a slider and he’s starting to throw that changeup. It sounds like to me that he might be able to start for us one day.”

It was a scoreless pitcher’s duel until the seventh inning when all the offense happened.

Brady Slavens and Jared Wegner started the inning with singles to right field and Kendall Diggs drove them home with a single to left after Jace Bohrofen drew a walk to load the bases.

Bolton picked up his second hit of the day with an RBI double down the line in left to make it a 3-0 game.

The Longhorns answered in the bottom half as Porter Brown hit a solo home run to right to start the frame.

Garret Guillemette followed with double, prompting the Hogs to turn to Frank out of the bullpen.

Frank got the first three hitters he faced to ground out, but not before a wild pitch brought home the second Longhorn run.

That was all the scoring in this one. Brady Slavens led off the eighth with a double, but that was squandered. Nobody pushed anything across the plate the rest of the way.