Jay Johnson reveals thought process with Paul Skenes in Game 2

LSU is coming into a must-win game against Wake Forest on Thursday night. This means that head coach Jay Johnson needs to make a big decision. Will star pitcher Paul Skenes get the ball and start this incredibly important game?

Johnson would not commit to putting Paul Skenes on the mound for a must-win game against an incredibly talented Wake Forest team.

“We’ll talk to him tonight,” Jay Johnson said. “I think it’s a day-by-day deal. We have a pre-throw process that we go through with pitchers and their availability and testing and recovery and all of those types of things. So we still need to go through that tomorrow before we make any decision.”

In 18 starts this season, Paul Skenes has a 1.81 ERA. He also has exactly 200 strikeouts on the year, a remarkable feat to accomplish in 114.2 innings pitched.

Most people expect Skenes, who is one of the best pitchers in all of college baseball to be on the mound. That includes Wake Forest head coach Tom Walter, who didn’t say who he’d pitch but did say that he expects to be facing Skenes.

“I do,” Walter said. “I do expect to see Paul Skenes tomorrow. He threw before the game today. He was cutting it loose pretty good. I imagine that’s exactly who we’ll see.”

This is a win and go to the College World Series Final, lose and go home game situation. So, you’d expect both teams to give themselves their best possible chance to win. However, it’s not wrong for Johnson to be looking out for the health and safety of a pitcher who may have an MLB career either.

Paul Skenes on throwing 100 MPH

Batters don’t have to guess what’s coming when Paul Skenes is on the mound. They should know by now that he wants to bring the heat. The problem is that most college hitters can’t catch up with Skenes’ 100 MPH fastball even if they know it’s coming.

As Skenes explained, it feels great to have a weapon like his fastball in his arsenal.

“It’s pretty freeing to be honest,” Skenes said. “I found out about it after the fact for one and didn’t really know what to think. I didn’t think I would get a whole lot more. But it was really cool to find out the first time.”