LSU star pitcher Paul Skenes has shown all season that he is perhaps the best pitcher in college baseball. He showed off his supreme talent yet again in their College World Series matchup against the Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday.
Skenes is largely seen by most as a potential top-five pick in the upcoming 2023 MLB Draft, and a lot of that is due to his impressive velocity.
He started Saturday’s game with a seven-pitch at-bat against Tennessee leadoff hitter Maui Ahuna. All seven pitches in the at-bat were either at or over 100 miles per hour, concluding on a 102 MPH fastball for the strikeout.
First 7 pitches of the College World Series for @LSUbaseball’s Paul Skenes, culminating in this K.
100
100
100
100
101
101
102pic.twitter.com/KscNUV2hz3— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) June 17, 2023
While his velocity is obviously impressive, it is far from the only part of his game. A strikeout of Tennessee outfielder Christian Scott shows that perfectly, throwing two nasty changeups followed by another 100-mile-per-hour fastball to get him out.
Paul Skenes, Unfair 3 Pitch K.
Changeup, Changeup…and 100mph ⛽️ pic.twitter.com/HdfKc378WT
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 18, 2023
He continued this impressive outing incredibly deep into the game, recording 12 strikeouts through over seven innings of play. Skenes held the Volunteers scoreless through seven innings, but wasn’t quite able to finish off his start how he would have wanted to.
He finally ran into trouble in the top of the eighth inning, allowing his first earned run of the game on an RBI single with two outs in the inning.
Maui gets the Vols on the board!#MCWS x 🎥 ESPN / @Vol_Baseball pic.twitter.com/J9ZTZmGImf
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 18, 2023
This knocked him out of the game, and he was later charged for his second earned run of the game after LSU relief pitcher Gavin Guidry allowed a two-run home run later in the inning.
HERE COME THE VOLS!!!!#MCWS x 🎥 ESPN / @Vol_Baseball pic.twitter.com/RgSm9tpgdz
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 18, 2023
Despite the blemish, it was still an extremely impressive outing for Skenes. Many took to social media to praise him for his great performance.
12 strikeouts on the night for Paul Skenes 🔥pic.twitter.com/TGPgT5E0I3
— BetMGM 🦁 (@BetMGM) June 18, 2023
The Legend of Paul Skenes Continues
Skenes against Tennessee:
7.2 IP
12 strikeouts
75 strikes thrown
123 pitches
5 hits allowed
1 ER3 strikeouts away from breaking Ben McDonald’s SEC single-season record.
Sheer dominance. pic.twitter.com/yuBC01mZYm
— Zack Nagy (@znagy20) June 18, 2023
Paul Skenes today:
7.2 IP
5 H
1 ER
1 BB
12 KsAll the talk has been about Dylan Crews going number 1, but Paul Skenes has a real chance. And he could be in the majors by the end of the year.pic.twitter.com/MhbqTHmmC7
— MLB Metrics (@MLBMetrics) June 18, 2023
Paul Skenes is one of the best pitching prospects we have ever witnessed👀 https://t.co/9q8VNAj0ob
— Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) June 18, 2023
Paul Skenes is on a Joe Burrow level of dominance
— Balcony Bengals (@BalconyBengals) June 18, 2023
It’s impressive enough to see this kind of performance in a regular-season game. To pitch like this in a game in the College World Series is pretty much unheard of, and it seems like we may be seeing the next MLB star in the making in Paul Skenes.
