Paul Skenes, a catcher/right-handed pitcher from the United States Air Force Academy, announced on Thursday that he will be taking his talents to the Bayou next spring to play for coach [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag] and the LSU Tigers.
The MLB draft is over, so Johnson doesn’t have to worry about losing this guy. As a sophomore last season, Skenes was named a Collegiate Baseball News Preseason First Team All-American, DIBaseball.com Preseason First Team All-American, Baseball America Preseason Third Team All-American, and he was named to Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watchlist.
Skenes lived up to that hype in 2022, finishing as a First Team All-American and earning the John Olerud Award as the best two-way player in college baseball. He pitched a total of 85.2 innings last season and finished the year with a 10-3 record, 96 strikeouts, 30 walks and a 2.73 ERA.
Forever a Bird | #GeauxTigers pic.twitter.com/AjGXvJiPt8
— Paul Skenes (@Paul_Skenes) July 29, 2022
He appeared as a hitter in 51 games and finished with an average of .314 with 38 RBI, 10 doubles and 13 homers. He was the Shohei Ohtani of the United States Air Force. He was their F-22 fighter. He was Maverick from ‘Top Gun.’ I can’t wait to see how Johnson uses him next year.
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