There are few words that truly do Paul Skenes' pitching dominance justice these days, but however you describe it, he was far too much for Tennessee to handle in LSU's 6-3 victory to open their run at the College World Series.
In the Tigers' biggest game yet, the Howser award winner unleashed one of his best starts of the year, going 7.2 innings, allowing 5 hits, 2 earned runs and mowing down 12 Vols batters to bring him two strikeouts shy of Ben McDonald's single-season strikeouts record (202), which has stood since 1989.
"It was awesome, everything I could have asked for," Skenes said on the field after the game. "Alex Box is pretty cool, but this is pretty cool, too. Awesome experience."
Skenes hit 100-plus on his fastball 46 times during his 123-pitch outing, according to the ESPN broadcast.
Gavin Dugas got the scoring started for LSU in the third inning, turning around a 94 MPH Andrew Lindsey fastball and driving it well over the left field wall at the cavernous Charles Schwab Field. Things were sailing along smoothly until the two outs in the 8th inning, when Tennessee shortstop Maui Ahuna extended an at-bat before punching a ball into centerfield to plate Christian Scott, who doubled earlier in the inning. Skenes gave the ball to freshman Gavin Guidry, who threw one pitch that was driven over the left field fence by Hunter Ensley.
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The shakiness continued, with Riley Cooper taking over and appearing to get the final out, but the Jordan Thompson throw pulled Tre' Morgan off the bag. The call on the field was overturned on review. Cooper settled back in and walked off with a called third strike against Christian Moore.
Cooper came back out for the 9th and recorded the first two outs before a throwing error allowed Blake Burke to reach first, then advance to second on a call that wasn't immediately clear. It turned out not to matter, though, after Scott lined out straight back to Cooper on the mount to end the game.
The Tigers used small ball to plate insurance runs, starting in the 4th with Josh Pearson and Dylan Crews punching the ball through the infield for back-to-back singles. Tommy White fought a ball off his hands to move the runners over, and Tre' Morgan hit a bullet back up the middle and off the pitcher to plate Pearson. Lindsay went 3.2 innings, striking out 4 while allowing 5 hits and 2 earned runs. The Vols finished the game with a parade of pitchers, including Aaron Combs (0.1), Seth Halvorsen (1.2), Kirby Connell (0.1), Camden Sewell (1.0), Hollis Fanning (0.2) and A.J. Russell (0.1).
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The game was scoreless until the 6th inning when catcher Hayden Travinski drew a walk and advanced to 2nd base on a wild pitcher. Brayden Jobert followed with a rocket that plunked at the bottom of the outfield wall and sat there, allowing the right-fielder to motor into third as Travinski scored. Jordan Thompson followed with a hard hit ball to shortstop that snuck through and pushed Jobert across the plate. Tre' Morgan added another run with a sacrifice fly in the 7th to plate Crews. Jobert struck again in the bottom of the 8th for a solo shot to answer the Vols' 3-run inning.
LSU will now advance in the winner's bracket, setting up a colossal showdown against the overall top-seeded Wake Forest, which scored 2 runs in the 8th inning for a 3-2 comeback victory in the day's earlier game. The Tigers and Demon Deacons will face off at 6 p.m. on Monday, while Tennessee and Stanford meet in an elimination game at 1 p.m. LSU is expected to send Ty Floyd to the mound on Monday.
On the other side of the bracket, Florida defeated Virginia and Oral Robert beat TCU. Those teams will continue their games on Sunday.
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