Wood-mania hits Pat McAfee Show for Arkansas

“To see you complete that and have the mental toughness to get through it all,” McAfee said in an interview with Wood on his own show. “Especially after a self-inflicted error with the hitting of the batter was beautiful for sports as a whole. You need to know that.”

He may have lost the chance to stand alone in history with the only perfect game in Omaha after he hit Dom Deckerin the cleats in the eighth, but nothing could slow down, even if Murray State’s Dan Tauken called time on an 0-2 pitch.

“I felt like everyone in that ballpark knew what was at stake right there,” Wood said. “After I hit that guy in the foot, I wasn’t going to lose the other part of that game that I wanted. When he did that, I felt like he was challenging me and there was no way I was not winning.”

Wood also didn’t completely shut the door on returning and pitching again at some point, despite blowing by his previous career-high pitch count by 30 pitches with 119.

McAfee inadvertently got confused between the number of pitches thrown and the temperature in Omaha, which led to quite a funny moment where he thought Wood threw his gem in 119 degree heat.

“I’m a little sore today,” Wood said. “We’ll see how we get going later on in the week. We’ll see how big adrenaline plays in, but if there is a moment where we can go in there and get the job done, not going to let them not put me in.”

There’s a long way for Arkansas to go before Wood can even entertain stepping on the mound again. The Razorbacks face the UCLA Bruins 6 p.m. Tuesday after the Bruins lost the resumption of Monday night’s game against LSU, 9-5, while using six pitchers since the restart and eight total to finish the game.

Although none of the pitchers threw a lot of pitches, the highest being Cal Randall at 32 pitches, most of them figure to be available in a few hours when UCLA and Arkansas take the field.

What looked like a dire situation for the Arkansas looks more manageable after Wood gave the bullpen the entire day off while the Bruins continued to throw arm after arm in an attempt to come back against LSU.

Whatever happens though, a slice of history has already been made, a slice that no one can take away from Wood or the Razorbacks.

“It only happens because of your hard work,” McAfee told Wood. “You earned that yesterday. you didn’t just fall into that. Can’t wait to see what you do next. Thank you for electrifying the entire country.”

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