Gage Wood injury update: Arkansas RHP leaves game after warmup pitch before third inning

Arkansas Razorbacks right-handed pitcher Gage Wood appears to have gone down with an injury. He reportedly left the game with training staff after throwing up a warm-up pitch ahead of the third inning against the Michigan Wolverines.

At the time that Gage Wood left the game, Arkansas had a 4-1 lead over Michigan. Wood had struck out six batters through the first two innings of the game while giving up two hits.

After he exited the game, the Arkansas social media team wrote, “Let’s show @GageWood_14 some love,” along with a heart emoji.

Let's show @GageWood_14 some love ♥️ pic.twitter.com/ZVQRvKkkvq

— Arkansas Baseball (@RazorbackBSB) February 23, 2025

For now, it’s unclear what the extent of the injury is or what caused the injury.

At the time, Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn was speaking to FloCollege. There, he explained he always wants his pitchers to show an abundance of caution with their health, though he doesn’t yet know what the issue is for Gage Wood.

“We tell our pitchers to be really cautious and if there’s any issue at all, don’t try to tough it out,” Van Horn said. “Let’s just get it evaluated and go from there.”

This was the second start of the season for Gage Wood. He previously started against the Washington State Cougars, pitching five innings and giving up two earned runs in that outing. He also had seven strikeouts, recording a no-decision for his effort.

Prior to this season, he spent two years at Arkansas, largely as a relief pitcher. He appeared in 22 games in 2024 and only started three of them. Last season, he had an ERA of 4.46 in 40.1 innings pitched to go along with 56 strikeouts.

Prior to the season, Dave Van Horn made it clear that he was going to be looking for players like Gage Wood to have a major impact on Arkansas. However, he also noted there was room to experiment based on how the schedule plays out. Now, he may be forced to make a change.

“But the first weekend, we play four games, which I think is a good thing for this team, and then head down to Texas,” Van Horn said. “If you look at our schedule, there aren’t a lot of games where you can go, ‘Okay, we’re going to experiment with that freshman out there.’ Although, in some cases with freshmen, it’s not an experiment. They’re pretty darn good. I mean, yeah, kind of tip-toeing around the question, but I mentioned four guys at the top and they’ll battle for those jobs to start out.”

The game against Michigan is part of the College Baseball Series, pitting some marquee non-conference opponents against one another, held in Arlington, Texas. The Razorbacks previously lost to Kansas State and beat TCU this weekend during the series.

Arkansas will be back in action on Tuesday against Grambling before playing its next weekend series against Charlotte. It will be interesting to see how Dave Van Horn shuffles the rotation if Gage Wood, his Sunday starter, is unable to go by then.