Barely more than a year after pitching a no-hitter in the College World Series, former Arkansas Razorback and Batesville standout pitcher Gage Wood is two steps away from big leagues.<\/p>\n
Wood, a 2022 graduate of Batesville High School, is currently pitching for the Reading (Pennsylvania) Fight Phils, the Double A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies.<\/p>\n
Wood pitched three years for the Razorbacks, helping them to two College World Series appearances, with the highlight being a no-hitter against Murray State on June 16, 2025. He faced one batter over the minimum, hitting a Murray State batter late in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just didn\u2019t want to go home,\u201d Wood said, during a media conference Wednesday, referring to Arkansas playing an elimination game. \u201cI knew there was a chance we would have gone home, but we didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have wanted to wear any other jersey that day for that experience and that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wood was selected in the first round of the 2025 MLB Draft by the Phillies. He pitched in one game of rookie ball last year. He started this season in Single-A Clearwater, Florida. He started eight games there, pitching only 26 1\/3 innings. However, he had a 3.43 ERA with 59 strikeouts.<\/p>\n
Wood was promoted to Double-A Reading on May 18. He\u2019s made four starts, throwing 14 innings with 19 strikeouts. He was the Phillies\u2019 minor league pitcher of the month for April.<\/p>\n
Wood said he wasn\u2019t sure what management is thinking with his pitch count, averaging only 3 1\/2 innings per start.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not something I need to be worried about,\u201d he said. \u201cI just need to go out there and throw the ball until they take the ball out of my hand each game that I go out there for a start and let everything else take care of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wood pitched in only 10 games during his last year at Arkansas. He was limited because of a shoulder injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom my side, it sucks sometimes,\u201d he said, referring short starts. \u201cThen again, you\u2019ve got to look at the bigger picture. I threw 37 innings last year due to a shoulder injury. Early on, how smart would it be to come out and throw 150 innings this year as a start. It\u2019s not very smart. So, I\u2019m trusting them with that. They\u2019ve been doing a really good job. I feel like I\u2019m in a great spot right now, and I\u2019m just going to keep doing what I\u2019ve been doing and let everything else take care of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wood spoke highly of Arkansas Razorbacks pitching coach Matt Hobbs.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach Hobbs is great,\u201d Wood said. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the biggest reasons I was an Arkansas Razorback for my whole college career. He\u2019s the reason I am where I am today. It has a lot to do with him, the way he believed in me from the first time I got on campus. He probably believed in me when I didn\u2019t believe in myself as much. I couldn\u2019t ask for anything better. He\u2019ll always be in my corner, and I will always stay in touch with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wood said he and current Razorback pitcher Mark Brissey are good friends. Brissey pitched for the Pioneers through his junior season before transferring to Fayetteville for his senior year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI talk to Mark a lot,\u201d Wood said. \u201cI talk to his family a lot. I\u2019m excited for him. I want him to go out there and do what I know he is capable of doing. I really hope he takes that next step out there after this freshman season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barely more than a year after pitching a no-hitter in the College World Series, former Arkansas Razorback and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2496,128,130,129,726],"class_list":["post-223064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-local_sports","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}