‘The dude was electric': Arkansas pitcher throws 19-strikeout no-hitter in CWS
Arkansas pitcher Gage Wood didn't just help his team stave off elimination Monday from the College World Series. He also made history.
Going the distance in a 3-0 victory over Murray State, Wood hurled the third no-hitter in men's College World Series history and the first in 65 years. In addition, his 19 strikeouts set a nine-inning record for the NCAA's championship tournament.
Asked after the game about his emotions in the wake of such an achievement, Wood replied, 'I shouldn't have hit the guy.' That was a reference to the only blemish in what could otherwise have been a perfect game, which Wood was pitching until the eighth inning. He hit a Racers batter with a pitch, but Wood recovered to get the next hitter to foul out before he struck out five straight to spark jubilation among the Razorbacks and their fans at Omaha's Charles Schwab Field.
'Gage was just executing pitch after pitch, getting ahead in the count and … elevating his fastball in and out,' Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. 'What a great job.'
Van Horn added that 'there was nothing being said or talked about in our dugout whatsoever,' in accordance with long-standing baseball protocol regarding ongoing pitching masterpieces. Wood's 119-pitch effort also featured (via Arkansas and the NCAA):
The only other men's CWS no-hitters came in 1950 (Jim Ehrler of Texas) and 1960 (Jim Wixson of Oklahoma State). Murray State Coach Dan Skirka said that what his squad faced Monday was 'special.'
'I think Gage Wood made some money today,' Skirka told reporters at a postgame news conference, possibly referring to expectations that Wood will be a high pick in next month's MLB draft. 'Holy cow.'
Noting that of Wood's 119 pitches, 83 were for strikes, Racers outfielder Jonathan Hogart said: 'Flipping in the curveball in there whenever he needed to, and his fastball, he had a little crossfire with the ride at the top. It looked like it was down the middle, and then it looked like it just kept rising up away from me.
'The dude,' he continued, 'was electric.'
Of his arsenal Monday, Wood said 'the only special thing was I didn't want to go home.'
Having lost its opener Saturday in Omaha to LSU, Arkansas was in a do-or-die situation against Murray State, which was in the same position after falling to UCLA on Saturday. The Razorbacks' win sends them to a Bracket 2 matchup Tuesday with the loser of Monday night's game between the Tigers and Bruins.
A 6-foot, 205-pound junior from Batesville, Arkansas, Wood came into Monday's game having thrown just 28⅔ innings this season after suffering a shoulder injury in February. He posted a 5.02 ERA over his nine previous appearances, but his 50 strikeouts in that span indicated his potential for dominance.
'I don't think we're ever going to see anything like that again,' Arkansas pitching coach Matt Hobbs said of Wood's no-hitter. 'That's by far the greatest performance I've ever seen.'
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