Jay Johnson 'really proud' of Paul Skenes

LSU RHP Paul Skenes put together an another special outing in the Tiger’s 6-3 opening win over Tennessee at the College World Series. Still, while this is just the latest great performance by the SEC Pitcher of the Year, Jay Johnson had nothing but pride to express again in the junior.

Johnson applauded Skenes’ performances following their opening win in Omaha over the Volunteers. He said that there’s nothing about Skenes that he takes for granted, especially considering he was able to pitch as well as he did with more than one spotlight upon him on Saturday.

“I’m really proud of him,” Johnson said. “I certainly don’t take these outings for granted. But that’s about the 16th one that we’ve seen like that.”

“I’m really proud of him for tonight because he had a lot on his plate here. And all great things with the Dick Howser Award. But it took a lot of time and effort — and what a great honor,” continued Johnson. “He just showed tonight why he was probably the clear-cut winner for that award.”

From there, Johnson explained exactly how Skenes does it. In his eyes, he’s able to pitch as well as he does because he prepares and executes unlike anyone else.

“We tried to get him some rest and insulate him as best we could so he could be on track with his preparation. Because he does that better than anybody else,” said Johnson. “As good as the performance is, the preparation is even better.”

“I think what gets lost with him sometimes because his stuff is so amazing? The pitch execution is tremendous,” Johnson said. “And, when you put that kind of stuff with that kind of execution, you have Paul Skenes.”

Skenes threw 123 pitches, with 73 being recorded as strikes, over 7.2 innings of work inside Charles Schwab Field. Those led to 12 strikeouts versus Tennessee’s lineup as he finished with a 1.81 ERA. In total, he allowed just five hits and two runs before Riley Cooper closed things out.

It was a fitting performance too considering the fact that Skene won the Dick Howser Trophy, awarded to college baseball’s best player, heading into the weekend.

Success at this level for Skenes isn’t anything new for Johnson to witness. He has seen it all before from his star and knows he’s deserving of it too considering all that he has put in to help LSU contend for a national title.