Making his first start at the 2023 Men’s College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, Paul Skenes brought the heat from Baton Rouge.
Skenes, the top pitching prospect in the 2023 MLB Draft, was practically unhittable against the Tennessee Volunteers. In a 7.2-inning outing, he allowed just two earned runs while striking out 12.
Of the 123 pitches the right-hander threw that night, an unbelievable 46 of them recorded a velocity of at least 100 miles per hour on the radar gun.
That’s just a taste of what Skenes, who could find himself as the No. 1 overall pick on Sunday night, brings to the table.
A transfer addition last offseason from Air Force, Skenes became the best pitcher in college baseball under the tutelage of head coach Jay Johnson and pitching coach Wes Johnson, who was recently hired as the head coach at Georgia.
He finished the year with a 12-2 record as the Friday night starter and a 1.69 ERA, which ranked second in the nation. His 209 strikeouts — an SEC record — led the nation, in addition to his 0.75 walks plus hits per inning pitched.
That aforementioned game against Tennessee wasn’t even his best outing in Omaha; that honor is reserved for the elimination game gem he pitched against top-seeded Wake Forest.
In that game, he pitched eight shutout innings with nine strikeouts as LSU outlasted the Demon Deacons and likely first-round pitcher Rhett Lowder.
MLB.com’s Jim Callis recently dubbed Skenes the second-best pitching prospect of all time behind Stephen Strasburg. But if being a generational pitching talent wasn’t enough, Skenes can hold his own at the plate, too.
He played catcher on his off days while at Air Force. Though he gave up hitting to focus on pitching when he got to Baton Rouge, he recently said that he plans to pick it back up at the professional level.
There was speculation this season that Skenes is already good enough to help out a Major League rotation. Whether that’s true remains to be seen, but regardless of who selects Skenes on Sunday night, he will likely be pitching in the majors sooner rather than later.
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