OMAHA, Neb. — The Cinderella story of Murray State came to an end Monday afternoon. The only four seed to reach the final stage of the NCAA Tournament was eliminated by a historic pitching performance as Arkansas baseball starter Gage Wood tossed the third no-hitter in College World Series history.
The Razorbacks‘ righty silenced an offense that was flying high. The Racers were averaging 9.3 runs per game in the postseason entering Monday, scoring double digits against Ole Miss, Georgia Tech and Duke on the road to Omaha.
But the explosive lineup was held in check by Wood. The junior righty skyrocketed up draft boards in recent weeks, and Murray State coach Dan Skirka got a first-hand look at what MLB scouts are salivating over with Wood’s two-pitch dominance.
“I think Gage Wood made himself some money today,” Skirka said. “Holy cow. With our offense and what we’ve done all year to a lot of really good pitchers, I’ll take the blame; I didn’t prepare these guys for what we saw today because it was special.”
The base of Wood’s lofty projections is a fastball that lives in the upper 90s, but Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn credited Wood’s curveball as the no-hitter difference maker.Expert MLB daily picks: Unique MLB betting insights only at USA TODAY
The Murray State hitters agreed with Van Horn.
“I think today Gage got us in between — don’t get me wrong, phenomenal pitcher — but the thing that he could do was he could throw 97 at the top of the zone and then run breaking balls,” Murray State third baseman Carson Garner said.
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