Gage Wood shares his mindset during no-hitter: 'I didn't want to go home'

The Arkansas Razorbacks didn’t plan on playing in an elimination game, but that’s where they found themselves in the College World Series after an opening loss. There, starting pitcher Gage Wood had the Razorbacks get on his back, as he went out and pitched the third no-hitter in College World Series history against Murray State to stay alive.

After the game, Wood shared that he wasn’t necessarily feeling any pitcher working better than normal during warmups. Instead, his performance came from simply not wanting to get eliminated just yet.

“Don’t throw a slider,” Gage Wood said. “I throw a curveball. I throw a cutter. But, no, the only special thing was I didn’t want to go home. That’s it.”

For Gage Wood, it was one of the greatest pitching performances in the history of college baseball. He had 19 strikeouts in the no-hitter. The MLB record for strikeouts in a game is 20. Roger Clemens did it twice and Kerry Wood did it once. There are six instances of 19 strikeout games as well. Gage Wood did that while also throwing a no-hitter. In fact, he was one hit by pitch in the eighth inning away from being perfect.

After losing the perfect game, some pitchers may have been pulled with an increasing pitch count. However, Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn explained why that wasn’t happening in the elimination game.

“I’ll be the first one to say it: There’s nothing being said or talked about our dugout whatsoever. We’re just going to let him roll,” Van Horn said. “There was no chance he was coming out after eight.”

In his career, Wood has received and will likely receive more game balls. Perhaps none will ever be as special as this one, though, and as he explained he gave it to his father to share, saying, “I said, ‘Happy late Father’s Day.'”

Next, Arkansas is set to take on either LSU or UCLA. That game was delayed part of the way through due to weather. If it ends up being LSU, the Razorbacks will be again matched with a team that has already beaten them in Omaha this season.

Gage Wood is widely regarded as a future first round pick. However, after pitching on Monday, it’s going to be a few days before he’s available for Dave Van Horn and Arkansas to use in another College World Series game. Instead, they’ll need to rely on their other arms.