Austin Strickland reveals confidence pitching has entering Super Regional

Austin Strickland is feeling confident as Kentucky prepares to face the LSU Tigers at the Super Regional in Baton Rouge.

It’ll be a stiff challenge for Strickland and the Wildcats, as the Tigers have two of the top potential draft picks for the 2023 MLB Draft in Dylan Crews and Paul Skenes, and both players were even recently named finalists for the 2023 Golden Spikes Award. However, Strickland is entering the weekend feeling good, as Kentucky played up to their expectations last weekend.

“It’s definitely a good feeling, when you compete at a high level and you produce well against good teams,” explained Strickland. “It just helps you to think that you can keep producing well against good teams. So going into LSU, we’ve been there a ton. They’re a great team. They were No. 1 in the country for a really long time. I have nothing but respect for them.

“So we’re going to go in and just give it our best shot. I think these last few weeks, we’ve been playing pretty good baseball. Especially this weekend, our offense has really turned it on. So I’m pretty confident going down there.”

As for the environment Kentucky will be entering at the Super Regional in Baton Rouge, Strickland believes the Wildcats’ previous experience at LSU will do them wonders this weekend, making their preparation for the showdown that much easier than if they were headed to face a non-SEC program.

“Just knowing the environment and knowing that we’ve been there before,” added the Kentucky flamethrower. “It’ll help us be really calm and confident. You know, definitely when you’re going into a Super Regional environment, it’s a little bit different than a random one in April. But you know, we’ve been to the box. We know what it looks like. We know what our dugout is going to be. What our bullpen is going to be.

“There’s definitely some confidence there when you’re familiar with your surrounding to an extent. It’s going to lead to a lot more confidence with our team.”

Nevertheless, familiarity won’t count for any runs come this weekend, but it’ll certainly help as the Wildcats face a tough LSU team with a chance to get to the College World Series.

Austin Strickland is feeling confident, but time will tell if the confidence is justified over the weekend. Kentucky will give it their all in Baton Rouge, but LSU won’t be laying down for anyone. It should be fantastic to watch.