Kopps gives Hogs a ‘game over’ feel
FAYETTEVILLE — In a dominating season, University of Arkansas relief pitcher Kevin Kopps was at his most dominant last weekend at South Carolina.
Kopps retired all 15 batters he faced in closing the No. 1 Razorbacks’ 6-1 and 5-1 victories over the Gamecocks and had 12 strikeouts.
“Kevin was making incredible pitches, and he was throwing those incredible pitches inside the strike zone,” Arkansas pitching coach Matt Hobbs said. “Usually when you have a nasty breaking ball like Kevin, it will leave the zone, because it’s so good that it’s tough to control when it moves as much as his does.
“But he’s got a really good feel for it, and having the ability to throw it for strikes and then throw it for chase. You have to do that against a team like South Carolina, because they are so good offensively and they’re so deep.”
The Gamecocks struggled to see what Kopps was throwing.
“We didn’t have an answer for that breaking ball,” South Carolina Coach Mark Kingston said. “Guys came back to the dugout saying they just can’t see it.”
Arkansas second baseman Robert Moore said it’s a confident feeling when Kopps comes into a game with the Razorbacks leading.
“You don’t want to say it’s over,” Moore said. “But we feel like it’s over.”
A senior right-hander from Sugar Land, Texas, Kopps was named Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s national player of the week Monday for his five perfect innings in two games against South Carolina.
Kopps also shared SEC co-pitcher of the week honors with Vanderbilt starter Kumar Rocker, who threw a complete game in the Commodores’ 6-2 victory over Mississippi State and held the Bulldogs to 1 earned run and 3 hits without a walk. He had eight strikeouts.
“Pretty cool for Kevin to get these awards,” Hobbs said. “It’s always nice to get national recognition, and then recognition inside the league is great as well.”
Hobbs said he wasn’t upset Kopps and Rocker shared the SEC pitching honor.
“In this league, if you’re going to get those awards, you’re going to have to go up against the best players in the country to win them,” Hobbs said. “Rocker had a great outing and so did Kevin. It actually was a couple of great outings for Kevin.”
Kopps, who is 6-0 with 5 saves in 18 appearances, has lowered his ERA to 0.97. In 37 innings he has allowed 4 runs and 11 walks with 66 strikeouts. Opponents are batting .177 against him.
“He’s striking out almost two guys an inning,” Hobbs said. “That’s ridiculous.”
Kopps has taken over the closer’s role after a disappointing 2020 season that was canceled after 16 games because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In seven appearances last season, including one start, Kopps had an 8.18 ERA with 9 strikeouts and 4 walks in 11 innings. Opponents batted .360 against him.
Things started turning around for Kopps last fall, Hobbs said, when he switched from throwing a four-seam fastball to a two-seamer to create more sink on it and got better depth on his cutter — the breaking ball the Gamecocks struggled to see — with a lower release point.
“Last year’s cutter was more side to side and would kind of hover at the top of the zone,” Hobbs said. “Now it’s violently breaking down and across.”
Hobbs said Kopps’ improvement in fall practice was evident in the way veteran hitters such as Christian Franklin and Matt Goodheart struggled against him.
“They had seen Kevin a lot, but they weren’t taking good swings,” Hobbs said. “You started to think, ‘OK, there’s something else going on here.’ That’s when we all first started to see that Kevin was a little bit different right now.”
Hobbs said Kopps’ improvement continued throughout preseason practice, but in Arkansas’ season-opening 13-9 victory over Texas Tech, he allowed 1 run, 2 hits and 1 walk in 1 inning while facing 6 batters.
“No one really got shook up when he didn’t pitch well against Texas Tech, because we’d seen how good he’d been,” Hobbs said. “We put him right back out there against TCU in a situation where we needed him.”
Two days after the Texas Tech game, Kopps closed the Razorbacks’ 4-1 victory over the Horned Frogs with two scoreless innings in which he had five strikeouts.
“I think in the past, Kevin might throw a good pitch and then use the rest of the at-bat trying to figure out how he did it,” Hobbs said. “Now he has a way better feel for what he’s doing.
“He’s gotten himself in way better shape, too. He lost some weight in the offseason, but didn’t lose any strength. Not that he didn’t take care of himself in the past, but he’s doing it at a higher level now.”
Kopps showed his mental toughness when he pitched the final four innings of Arkansas’ 2-1 victory in 10 innings over Texas A&M.
Arkansas led 1-0 when Kopps came into the game in the seventh inning and gave up a home run to Brett Minnich — the first batter he faced — on an 0-2 pitch. It was the first home run of the season for Minnich, who was batting .214.
“Kevin’s third pitch and a guy who hadn’t hit a home run all season hit one off the scoreboard to tie the game,” Hobbs said. “That shook everybody up a little bit.
“But not Kevin. He’s just about the business out there. He’s not thinking, ‘I can’t believe I gave up that hit.’ Kevin is just competing. Trying to be competitive with every pitch he throws.”