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Arkansas' Gage Wood makes CWS history with no-hitter, strikes out record 19
OMAHA, Neb. — Arkansas junior Gage Wood threw the College World Series's first no-hitter in 65 years Monday in a 3-0 elimination-game victory over Murray State.
Wood struck out 19 batters in 119 pitches as the Razorbacks advanced to face either LSU or UCLA on Wednesday at Charles Schwab Field. The right-hander from Batesville, Ark., projected as an early-round pick in next month's MLB Draft, overpowered Murray State with a fastball that consistently hit 97 mph and a devastating curveball.
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His performance marked just the third no-hitter at the CWS and the first since Jim Wixson of Oklahoma State held North Carolina hitless in 1960. Wood did not allow a base-runner through seven innings. He lost his bid to throw the first perfect game in CWS history when he hit Dom Decker with a 2-2 breaking pitch to open the eighth inning.
Wood responded by coaxing a foul pop-up and striking out the next two Racers.
He fanned two in the first inning, one in the second, then seven consecutively. Then he took out eight of the next nine batters through the fifth, two in the sixth, one in the seventh and two in the eighth.
Arkansas first baseman Reese Robinett made a nice play on a ground ball from Carson Garner to end the seventh inning, the only close call of the afternoon.
Wood's effort came in just his 10th pitching appearance of the season. He missed two months from February to April this year with a shoulder injury. In his most recent outing before Monday, Wood did not record a strikeout against Tennessee in 3 ⅓ innings as the starter in Arkansas' super-regional-clinching win on June 8.
To finish it in Omaha, Wood came out of the Arkansas dugout to an ovation I the ninth inning.
Pinch hitter Nico Bermeo got called out for moving into a two-strike pitch that hit him to open the final inning. Wood struck out Conner Cunningham and got Jonathan Hogart to strike out on a 1-2 fastball to end it.
