OMAHA, Neb. — Following the superstition of thousands of baseball players before them, the Arkansas Razorbacks didn't dare utter the words «no-hitter» or «perfect game» in the dugout Monday afternoon as Gage Wood mowed through Murray State's lineup at the Men's College World Series.
Catcher Ryder Helfrick had a feeling something special was brewing by the fourth inning, but he kept quiet. Skipper Dave Van Horn was mum, too.
«I'll be the first to say there was nothing being talked about or said in our dugout,» Van Horn said. «We were just going to let him roll.»
Everybody did their part until the end of the eighth inning, when 11-year-old batboy Gage Goodwin, whom the players call G-baby, slipped.
«Is Gage going out for the no-no?» asked the son of Clay Goodwin, Arkansas' director of baseball operations.
It didn't matter, though.
Wood, a 6-foot, 205-pound right-hander struck out the last three batters, breaking a MCWS record with 19. He became the first player to throw a no-hitter in the MCWS in 65 years. He actually had a perfect game going until the eighth inning when his breaking ball hit Dom Decker in the foot.
Wood's 119th and final pitch was clocked at 97 mph, and he ran his fingers through the letters over his chest, emphatically saying, «Arkansas» as the Razorbacks beat Murray State 3-0 in their first elimination game in Omaha. To put his 19-strikeout feat in perspective, no pitcher has ever had more than 17 strikeouts in an MLB no-hitter, according to ESPN Research. Max Scherzer and Nolan Ryan are the only ones to reach 17.
Earlier this year, Wood missed seven weeks of the season because of a shoulder injury. It was the only time Helfrick had seen him down. And the most pitches Wood had thrown in 2025 before
Read more on espn.com
espn.com
