LSU Ace Paul Skenes Dominant Against Tennessee At College World Series

Image credit: Paul Skenes (Photo By John Korduner For The Washington Post Via Getty Images)

OMAHA—LSU coach Jay Johnson a week ago during super regionals said the most impressive thing about Paul Skenes’ incredible season was his consistency.

“The Friday, Saturday night (mentality), the 12 or 13 strikeouts per game, the three to four hits, the zero or one run up on the board and being able to count on that at the level that we play at and the schedule that we play, maybe somebody’s done it before, but I haven’t really seen that,” Johnson said in Baton Rouge. “Stephen Strasburg is the only competitor as far as execution and talent and domination that I’ve seen to this.”

A week later, on the even bigger stage of the College World Series, Johnson was again singing the praises of his ace and his consistency.

“I’m really proud of him,” Johnson said. “I certainly don’t take these outings for granted. But that’s about the 16th one that we’ve seen like that—remarkable.”

Facing Tennessee on Saturday night, Skenes threw 7.2 innings, struck out 12 batters, walked one and held the Volunteers to two runs on five hits. On the sport’s biggest stage, the sport’s biggest star led LSU to a 6-3 victory and into the winner’s bracket. LSU will take on top-seeded Wake Forest on Monday night in what promises to be a heavyweight fight.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. What Skenes did Saturday night—and all season—is too good to gloss over in anticipation of even a mammoth showdown.

Tennessee came into the night averaging 7.6 runs per game and sixth in the nation in home runs (125). In two matchups against Skenes, however, the Volunteers have been stymied. In his two starts against them, the righthander totaled 24 strikeouts in 14.2 innings and held them to three runs on 10 hits and two walks.

The first meeting came March 30 at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge. Skenes faced off against righthander Chase Dollander, a potential top-10 pick, in front of an electric crowd of 13,068 fans. It was a Thursday night in March, but it felt like a super regional.

Skenes was outstanding that night. The Volunteers said he was better Saturday night in front of 25,010 fans at Charles Schwab Field in the CWS.

“He was better this go around than last go around,” Tennessee outfielder Christian Scott said. “He’s just getting better and better.”

“Obviously, Paul’s really good,” Tennessee DH Griffin Merritt said. “There’s no other way to put it. And he was on his game tonight. And he was executing his game plan. And when you face a guy like that you need a couple of breaks to go your way.”

So, what was the difference Saturday night? Skenes attacked Tennessee with more changeups in Omaha. The pitch was useful to him the first time against the Volunteers, but he went to it more often Saturday.

Skenes has mostly thrived on his fastball-slider combination. His fastball was certainly there Saturday, as he threw 46 pitches clocked at 100 mph or more. His slider, always a premium weapon as well, can flummox hitters. But his changeup has been questioned at times throughout the season. Some of that criticism has been unfair—asking his changeup to be as good as his two elite pitches is asking a lot. Some of it has simply been a result of not needing to go to his changeup.

But on Saturday, Skenes showed his changeup can be a weapon when called upon. While his changeup has often fallen out of the zone, either because he’s thrown it as a chase pitch or because he hasn’t been able to locate it at the bottom of the zone, he was landing it Saturday night.

“I think he just started locating his changeup a little more,” Tennessee outfielder Jared Dickey said. “He was honestly throwing it to lefties and righties, which is pretty special. Anytime somebody can do that, they’re going to do pretty good. I would say that was the biggest adjustment we had to make.”

“He threw backwards,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said. “He throws 100 miles an hour and he threw backwards on our guys. From his end, you’re doing anything you can to advance in the situation in the bracket where you’re in the winner’s side. And he mixed it up. And in order to do that effectively you’ve got to throw strikes and command your pitches. And he did that.

“I don’t know what his changeup numbers are, and my angle is not that great. But I would imagine his changeup usage and strike percentage changeup-wise was as good as it’s been all year. He was effective with his whole arsenal.”

LSU did draw up a different gameplan for Skenes to face Tennessee a second time. Johnson said they looked back at what worked for Skenes the first time and what had been working well recently against the Volunteers, who have been on an impressive second-half run.

The result was a gameplan that included more changeups than Skenes has typically thrown this season.

“Some of those guys have improved and we felt like we needed to attack them a little bit different way,” Johnson said. “Looking at it, also, their plan early in the game, we were able to kind of figure out what they were trying to do with him. And then (pitching coach Wes Johnson) did a nice job of calling pitches. And then the big man took care of the rest as far as the execution.”

“When 88 is tunneling off 100, tip your cap to him, you know what I mean?” LSU catcher Hayden Travinski said. “They’re a great team, they have great hitters, a great hitting coach. I know that we just had the right gameplan going in and he executed, that’s the biggest thing.”

Skenes said he felt like he had four pitches working at times Saturday (he also mixed in a few curveballs). From the start, he was on his game. He struck out Maui Ahuna to open the game and had six strikeouts in the first time through the order. For the first seven innings, the Volunteers didn’t get a runner past first base or put more than one runner on in an inning. It wasn’t until the eighth inning when Scott doubled and Ahuna brought him in with a single to start the fourth time through the order—and knock Skenes out of the game—that Tennessee was able to stack anything against him.

There’s only so much any hitter can do against Skenes. This season he is 13-2, 1.81 with 200 strikeouts and 19 walks in 114.2 innings. He’s the first pitcher to strike out 200 batters in a season since Trevor Bauer in 2011. He’s two strikeouts shy of the LSU and SEC record that’s been held by Ben McDonald since 1989. In the 21st century, only Jered Weaver(213), Bauer (203) and Mark Prior (202) have more strikeouts in one season than Skenes.

While the Volunteers aren’t happy to have seen the strikeouts pile up in their two games against Skenes, they also understand the situation.

“Obviously, strikeouts aren’t good, but let’s be realistic,” Merritt said, “the guy is probably going to break the all-time strikeout record for a given season. So, give and take with that.”

Skenes is going to fall short of the all-time record, which is 234 and has been held by Hawaii’s Derek Tatsuno since 1979. But Tatsuno did that in a different era of college baseball. He threw 174.1 innings in 22 starts. Skenes will finish the season with probably about 50 fewer innings thrown and is facing much better hitters. The 21st century mark set by Weaver in 2004 (in 144 innings over 19 starts) is far more relevant and in range if LSU can get the ball back in his hand during the tournament.

We’ll leave that for another day. On Saturday, it was enough to marvel at Skenes and his remarkable season and consistency.