Gage Wood explains when he decided to embrace Murray State players postgame

Arkansas junior right-handed pitcher Gage Wood delivered one of the great pitching performances in college baseball history Monday night, as he struck out 19 of his 28 faced batters to cement just the third no-hitter in Men’s College World Series history (first since 1960).

Following the historic performance, Wood celebrated with his teammates before pulling a classy move and consoling Murray State‘s Jonathan Hogart and Conner Cunningham following the end of their season. Hogart was the final batter Wood struck out to finish off the win, and Cunningham and Wood are both alumni of Batesville High School (Batesville, AR).

Wood just walked over to Murray State’s dugout and bro-hugged Hogart, the last player he struck out for the no-no.

Then did the same with Conner Cunningham. They went to the same high school: https://t.co/fOsiT34YCv pic.twitter.com/ChP4v502yC

— Matthew Byrne (@MatthewByrne1) June 16, 2025

“After I hugged all of my teammates and they were telling me great job and everything, that was just all I could think of you know,” Wood said. “I was on cloud-nine but one of my great friends, his season ended. Feel like any normal person would do that.”

Jonathan Hogart calls Wood’s performance ‘electric’

The Racers, who were this year’s cinderella team in the field, put just one runner on base via a hit by pitch. If not for that one HBP, Wood would have tossed the third perfect game of the 2025 college baseball season (joining Portland left-handed pitcher Ryan Rembisz and UNC Wilmington right-handed pitcher Cam Bagwell).

“Looking right here, he threw 119 pitches and only 83 strikes. That’s electric,” said Hogart postgame. “He was laying the two, three, maybe even threw a fourth one in there for strikes. But flipping the curveball in there whenever he needed. And the fastball, he had a little crossfire with the ride at the top. Looked like it was down the middle. It looked like it just kept rising away from you.”

“The dude was electric tonight. 19 strikeouts, that’s coming from a team that doesn’t do that a lot. Hats off to him. Like [coach Dan] Skirka said, he probably got paid a good amount after tonight. Kudos to him, and he was just really good tonight. Nothing else you can really say.”

With Wood pitching all nine innings, the Razorback bullpen was completely preserved. This means that star arms Zach Root and Gabe Gaeckle may be available in their next game. If the Hogs go on to win the College World Series, Wood may almost certainly be getting a statue outside of Baum-Walker.

With the win, Arkansas keeps its season alive and will now face the loser of Tuesday’s LSU–UCLA matchup on Wednesday. The winner of that game will stay alive to face the winner of that matchup, having to win two games to advance to the College World Series Final.