Inside Gage Wood's MCWS masterpiece

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 Monday was 91 a couple of weeks ago in the Fayetteville Regional final against Creighton.

Razorbacks pitching coach Matt Hobbs, who reassured Wood during his rehab that he would be back to help the team win ballgames, said Monday that with the season on the line in an elimination game, there was "never a discussion" about who was going to start.

Hobbs did, however, attempt to have a discussion with Wood in the eighth inning about how he was doing and whether he could go on.

"He looked like he was about to kill me," Hobbs said, laughing. "I just walked away."

There was no way he was taking Wood out anyway -- at least not while he had the no-hitter going strong. Wood, Hobbs said, was riding adrenaline those final two innings.

Both Hobbs and Helfrick, who called 118 of the pitches -- Hobbs called one fastball -- had a good feeling about Wood on Monday. Hobbs normally has to press his catcher to give an opinion on his pregame thoughts, but Monday he was firm. All of Wood's pitches looked good, Helfrick told him.

Wood struck out seven straight batters from the third to the fifth inning, and the Razorbacks were on their way. Wood said he didn't start thinking about the no-hitter until the eighth. That didn't surprise his catcher.

"I don't know what's going through that head of his," Helfrick said. "He's a character. That's Gage Wood."

After Wood threw his final pitch and celebrated, he found Murray State infielder Conner Cunningham and wrapped him in a hug. Cunningham and Wood hail from Batesville, Arkansas, a roughly 3-hour and 45-minute drive from Fayetteville, and in the offseason they play catch and work out together.

"He stands in on bullpens, gives me feedback," Wood said. "When I'm home -- there's not much in Batesville, if y'all don't know that. I think there's 10, 11 thousand people there. So, there's no nice place for me to go throw on a Trackman with these other college guys. It's me and him.

"He helps a lot when I'm home. So I wanted to go tell him that I loved him."

Wood told Cunningham, a freshman, that he was proud he made it this far.

After throwing a no-hitter, Arkansas SP Gage Wood made to tip his cap to Murray State's Conner Cunningham 🤝 pic.twitter.com/AT5sHHhwZf

Wood is expected to be a high pick in next month's MLB draft, but on Monday, he cherished his time on the mound and the opportunity to compete with the Razorbacks again Tuesday against the loser of the UCLA-LSU game in yet another elimination game. Hobbs said the team doesn't pick captains but that Wood is considered one. He said the pitcher could've checked out after his injury earlier in the season and instead focused on the draft.

On the biggest stage of his career, Wood delivered one emphatic message: He's not going anywhere yet.

"Obviously in that moment to do that," Hobbs said, "I don't think we're ever going to see anything like that again. That's by far the greatest performance I've ever seen. You take into scope that it's an elimination game and it's a kid who's been through a lot this season, whether it's injury or just coming back from that and to do that on this stage, what a great performance."