A college baseball team making it to the College World Series is a humongous achievement, one that can define the program in the years that follow and put it firmly on the national stage. Once there, rising above the seven other teams to win a national championship is an even more Herculean feat, an accomplishment that immortalizes players and coaches in a school and program’s lore.
Being perfect at the CWS, though? That’s something unprecedented.
In his team’s elimination game against Murray State, Arkansas pitcher Gage Wood was nearly untouchable, surrendering no hits in a complete-game shutout to help deliver the No. 3 Razorbacks a 3-0 victory to keep their national title dreams alive. While it’s sacrilegious for such discussions to take place in a dugout during a game, Wood’s no-hitter offered a moment of euphoria for Arkansas
From that joy came a natural question: Has anybody ever thrown a no-hitter at the CWS? Here’s a look at the history of no-hitters and perfect games in the CWS:
Has there ever been a perfect game in the College World Series?
Since at least 1959, when there was the first recorded perfect game in college baseball, there has never been a perfect game at the College World Series.
The first CWS was played in 1947 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, but the first perfect game wasn’t recorded until Maryland’s Dick Reitz managed the accomplishment in a win against Johns Hopkins in April 1959. Beyond just the CWS, there has never been a perfect game in the NCAA baseball tournament.
Wood won’t be joining that group. He went too far inside against left-hander Dom Decker, with a breaking ball hitting the Murray State redshirt sophomore in the first at-bat of the eighth inning.
‘I shouldn’t have hit the guy,’ he said in a postgame interview with ESPN. ‘That’s all I’ve got to say.’
Still, Wood was overpowering and showed few, if any, signs of weakness on the mound at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska. Of the 28 batters he faced, he struck out 19 of them.
Wood’s perfect game bid was the longest in the CWS since at least 1999, when play-by-play data first becomes available. It’s the longest game of Wood’s career, with the junior right-hander at 105 pitches through the first eight innings.
Has there ever been a no-hitter at the College World Series?
Though Wood lost his bid at the first perfect game in College World Series history, he still did something that hadn’t been achieved at the fabled event in generations.
Before Wood on Monday, there had been only two no-hitters at the College World Series, though there hasn’t been one since Oklahoma State’s Jim Wixson against North Carolina in 1960, meaning Wood’s was the first in 65 years. The first no-hitter occurred in 1950, the year the tournament was first held in Omaha, Nebraska, when Texas’ Jim Ehrler did so against Tufts.
There have now been nine no-hitters in NCAA baseball tournament history at the Division I level.
How many perfect games have there been in college baseball history?
There have been 39 recorded perfect games in Division I college baseball history since the first one in 1959, according to the NCAA.
The most recent one came in March, when UNC Wilmington freshman Cam Bagwell had a perfect game in a 12-0 victory against Campbell, needing only 80 pitches to do so in a run-rule, seven-inning win.
It was actually the second perfect game of the 2025 season, with Portland’s Ryan Rembisz giving up no hits or walks while striking out 12 in a win against Seattle.
Perfect games have become more common in recent years. Of the 39 all-time perfect games in Division I history, 15 have come since 2011, including five since 2022.
Gage Wood stats
Monday’s game in the College World Series was only Wood’s 10th appearance of the season. In his first nine games this season, all of them starts, the Batesville, Arkansas native had a 3-1 record with a 5.02 ERA, 50 strikeouts and only seven walks in 28 2/3 innings pitched.
As a sophomore last season, Wood had a 3-2 record, a 4.46 ERA, 56 strikeouts and only eight walks in 40 1/3 innings across 22 appearances.
