Five college pitchers, including Paul Skenes, went into Friday with over 100 strikeouts on the season. The difference between the LSU ace and the rest was Skenes reached the milestone three weeks earlier.
He entered the series against Mississippi State with 139 on the season. Considering he had totaled 11 or more strikeouts in all but two appearances, one of which was cut short due to weather, he was almost guaranteed to surpass 150 against the Bulldogs.
Of course, the prospect of pitching double-digit strikeouts in any SEC matchup isn’t easy to say the least. But for him, it was just another Friday night.
The projected No. 2 pick in the 2023 MLB draft got to work immediately. Facing a top of a batting order that featured one of the best home run hitters in the country, Skenes retired the side with three straight strikeouts to kick things off before doing the exact same thing in the second inning.
“Those first two, you can’t dominate a game any more than that,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said on Skenes. “It wouldn’t have mattered who was in the Box tonight. A college baseball team or the Yankees, it would have been the same result with his execution.”
Skenes isn’t a stranger to fast starts, with his first and second innings rarely featuring more than four batters each. Examples include his matchups versus Alabama and South Carolina, where he struck out five of his first eight batters and eight of his first 12 respectively.
“A lot of the first inning is just coming out with a lot of adrenaline,” Skenes said. “I think the humidity helped, and the big crowd, but I don’t think I felt a ton better in the first couple innings than I have in the first couple innings of every other start of the year.”
With those six strikeouts in the first and second, Skenes officially entered the top 10 for strikeouts in a season by an LSU pitcher, surpassing Patrick Coogan and Ben McDonald (as a sophomore). By the top of the fifth, he had struck out 10 of his first 13 batters faced and was one away from moving up another spot.
He ultimately finished the game with 13 strikeouts, passing up Scott Schultz and Alex Lange to claim the No. 7 spot with 152. He allowed a single earned run and three hits on the night as well, with Mississippi State’s first hit not coming until 5.2 innings into the game.
He sits within reach of jumping five spots to No. 2, needing seven more strikeouts to surpass LSU legend Anthony Ranaudo at 159. And though the prospect of taking on Ben McDonald’s 202 is daunting, the No. 1 spot is obtainable depending on how long LSU survives in postseason.
“I came here to put myself in a better position, as well as win a lot of games and have a lot of fun and stuff like that,” Skenes said when discussing being among the best LSU pitchers of all time. “But it’s really cool, I never expected to leave a huge legacy at LSU. I think that would be cool to do, to be here for one year and people know who I am.”
In terms of strikeouts per nine innings, Skenes is already in a league of his own. Every other LSU pitcher within the top 10 for strikeouts in a season has done so with at least 117 innings pitched while he’s currently pitched 79.2.
Seasons of this nature occur once in a generation. To say his final few weeks with the program are a must-watch would be an understatement.
