Life in the Valley

Arkansas’ Gage Wood No-Hits Murray State in 3-0 Hogs Win

At some point, the memories of the journey will outweigh the haunting of how it ended.

Arkansas starter Gage Wood threw perhaps the greatest game in College World Series history, a no-hitter with no walks and 19 strikeouts (a CWS record), as the Razorbacks ended Murray State’s historic season, 3-0, in Game 7 of the CWS in Omaha. Arkansas advances to play the loser of tonight’s UCLA/LSU game in another elimination game on Tuesday.

Perspective might understandably be a hard thing to find in the wake of Murray State’s loss this afternoon, in which the Racers’ lone baserunner came in the 8th inning when Wood hit Dom Decker in the foot with a breaking ball. He also plunked Nico Bermeo in the arm in the 9th, but after an Arkansas challenge, Bermeo was ruled (somehow) to have intentionally moved into the path of the ball to get hit, making the pitch a strike – which resulted in a strikeout and the first out of the inning.

After the play was overturned, Wood struck out both Conner Cunningham and Jonathan Hogart to end the game. Wood was as dominant in the 9th as he was in the 1st, consistently using a 96- to 98-mph fastball middle of the zone and up to retire Racer hitters. He kept his pitch count in good shape through the early and middle portions of the game, going into some deeper counts later when he began throwing more breaking pitches. Either the Racers couldn’t catch up with the velocity, or they took fast balls that ended up right down the heart of the plate.

Not that you could blame them. I’m not sure they saw anyone else during the entire season who could consistently hit that velocity and the location he wanted like Wood did. He got more emotional as the game went on, too, firing off the mound with a yell to end the 8th when he struck out Dan Tauken after appearing to be a bit miffed over Tauken calling an offensive time out. Had it been me, I would have called the National Guard the way Wood was pitching.

Wood’s dominance was so complete, in one stretch none of his teammates fielded a ball in play for a span of 14 outs. Wood struck out the side in the 3rd and 4th, then fanned Dom Decker looking to start the 5th. Luke Mistone made contact, but grounded back to Wood. After a strikeout to end the 5th, Tauken was retired on a bouncer to Wood to start the 6th. He fanned Charlie Jury and Cunningham to end the 6th, then Hogart to start the 7th, before Dustin Mercer ground out to short.

Not to be lost, however, was a stellar pitching performance in his own right by Murray State starter Issac Silva. Working a fast ball at 91-93 with an 88-mph changeup and a low-80s slider down and away to righties, Silva worked 6 innings, allowing just 1 run on 6 hits with 2 walks an 7 strikeouts against an Arkansas lineup that’s one of the best in the country.

Silva threw 90 pitches, giving way to Graham Kelham to start the 7th. The Razorbacks struck for 2 runs in that inning to build their 3-0 lead, but Kelham settled down from there, retiring 9 of the last 10 hitters he faced. The only man to reach was Justin Thomas Jr., who went 4-for-4 for Arkansas out of the 9-spot with a run and a stolen base.

The top two in the Razorbacks order, LF Charles Davalan and SS Wehiwa Aloy, combined to 4-for-9 with a run and 2 RBIs in the win.

For Murray State, its first trip to Omaha might have ended with an 0-2 mark, but the Racers played tough against 2 very good teams and represented the Missouri Valley Conference well as the first MVC school to reach the CWS since 2003. Head coach Dan Skirka and his team earned the respect of the college baseball community and set individual and team milestones that will last for many years to come.

Ed Morgans is the founder of MVCBaseball.com. An Evansville graduate, Ed has written about and broadcast college baseball, while following the sport for 40 years.