OMAHA, Neb. — Arkansas junior Gage Wooden threw the Faculty World Collection’s first no-hitter in 65 years Monday in a 3-0 elimination-game victory over Murray State.
Wooden struck out 19 batters in 119 pitches because the Razorbacks superior to face both LSU or UCLA on Wednesday at Charles Schwab Subject. The suitable-hander from Batesville, Ark., projected as an early-round choose in subsequent month’s MLB Draft, overpowered Murray State with a fastball that constantly hit 97 mph and a devastating curveball.
His efficiency marked simply the third no-hitter on the CWS and the primary since Jim Wixson of Oklahoma State held North Carolina hitless in 1960. Wooden didn’t enable a base-runner via seven innings. He misplaced his bid to throw the primary good recreation in CWS historical past when he hit Dom Decker with a 2-2 breaking pitch to open the eighth inning.
Wooden responded by coaxing a foul pop-up and placing out the following two Racers.
He fanned two within the first inning, one within the second, then seven consecutively. Then he took out eight of the following 9 batters via the fifth, two within the sixth, one within the seventh and two within the eighth.
Arkansas first baseman Reese Robinett made a pleasant play on a floor ball from Carson Garner to finish the seventh inning, the one shut name of the afternoon.
Wooden’s effort got here in simply his tenth pitching look of the season. He missed two months from February to April this yr with a shoulder damage. In his most up-to-date outing earlier than Monday, Wooden didn’t report a strikeout towards Tennessee in 3 ⅓ innings because the starter in Arkansas’ super-regional-clinching win on June 8.
To complete it in Omaha, Wooden got here out of the Arkansas dugout to an ovation I the ninth inning.
Pinch hitter Nico Bermeo bought referred to as out for shifting right into a two-strike pitch that hit him to open the ultimate inning. Wooden struck out Conner Cunningham and bought Jonathan Hogart to strike out on a 1-2 fastball to finish it.
(Picture: Steven Branscombe / Imagn Photos)
