Arkansas’ Gage Wood put his name in rarified air with the third no-hitter in Men’s College World Series history and the first in 65 years.
The hard-throwing Arkansas righty was dominant — and just a hit batter away from a perfect game — in the Razorbacks’ 3-0 win to eliminate Cinderella Murray State in Omaha on Monday afternoon.
Wood set the College World Series record for strikeouts in a nine-inning game with 19 and did not walk a batter over 119 pitches.
He fanned Jonathan Hogart swinging to end game.
The only blemish was Wood hitting Dom Decker on his back foot to lead off the eighth inning.
He then proceeded to strike out the next three batters.
He also hit Nico Bermeo to start the ninth, but it was turned into a strikeout when Arkansas won its challenge and it was deemed Bermeo leaned into the pitch instead of making an effort to get out of the way.
“I shouldn’t have hit the guy,” Gage said in his ESPN on-field interview when asked about his performance. “That’s it. That’s all I got to say.”
The other two no-hitters were thrown by Texas’ Jim Ehrler against Tufts in 1950 and Jim Wisxon of Oklahoma State against North Carolina in 1960 before Gage joined them on Tuesday.
Gage, a junior and projected first-round draft pick, went 3-1 with a 5.02 ERA in nine appearances and 28.2 innings this season while posting 50 strikeouts.
Murray State was just the fourth No. 4 seed to make it to the College World Series since 1999, when the field expanded.
Arkansas awaits the loser of tonight’s UCLA-LSU game on Tuesday.
