He’s only two starts into the season, but Arkansas righty Connor Noland has looked like the ace of the Razorbacks staff. In yesterday’s 5-2 win over Indiana in the Karbach Round Rock Classic the senior from Greenwood ate up innings, held the Hoosiers at bay, and worked out of the few jams he created for himself. Noland may not blow you away with his stuff, but he has learned to pitch and looked like the leader of the staff on Friday.
Noland had an efficient outing, completing six full innings on just 86 pitches. He scattered five hits, walked a pair, and struck out 10 while allowing only one earned. In addition to racking up strikeouts (almost 1/3 of all batters faced walk back to the dugout), Noland continued his early trend of inducing weak contact. Through two starts opponents have a .600 ground ball average on balls in play.
The Hogs entered the year with a litany of questions about their pitching staff. And they added another to the list when Peyton Pallette went down with Tommy John surgery. Connor Noland has clearly risen to the challenge after his first two starts.