FAYETTEVILLE — In a year of elite starting pitching in the SEC, coaches thought highly of Arkansas left-hander Zach Root.
Root was voted earlier this week to the All-SEC first team alongside left-handers Liam Doyle of Tennessee and Kade Anderson of LSU, and right-hander Kyson Witherspoon of Oklahoma. Doyle was the league’s pitcher of the year.
Doyle, Anderson and Witherspoon rank second, third and fourth nationally in the sabermetric Defense Independent Game Score (DIGS+), which takes into account factors that pitchers control like strikeouts, walks, hit batsmen, hits and home runs.
First nationally in that category is LSU right-hander Anthony Eyanson, who was voted second-team All-SEC.