Paul Skenes downplays nerves of playing in front of large crowd

LSU Tigers star pitcher Paul Skenes knows that playing in the College World Series is an intense experience. The crowds are huge and intense. However, Skenes downplayed the nerves of playing in front of a crowd like that.

As Skenes explained, he and LSU have been working toward this goal all season long.

“I mean, this is something that we look forward to all year,” Paul Skenes said. “This is why I came to LSU. But honestly, playing in front of as many fans as we have at Alex Box, and kind of mentally preparing over the last 10 months or whatever it’s been, when it comes down to it it just comes down to execution.”

This was Paul Skenes’ junior year of college but first season pitching at LSU. He spent his previous two seasons at Air Force. To this point, he’s been a dominant pickup for the Tigers, with a 1.81 ERA in 114.2 innings pitched.

“And Coach says the game doesn’t change, people change. As long as we make it to where we don’t change, then that allows to us have success here.”

Paul Skenes dominated the Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday, pitching 7.2 innings and only allowing two runs in a win. That game set up a matchup against Wake Forest on Monday, one of the favorites to win the College World Series.

In that game, Skenes also reached 200 strikeouts on the season. However, that wasn’t on his mind when he was on the mound.

“Found out about that after the game, which is really cool,” Paul Skenes said. “But, I mean, it comes down to executing. And I think I did a good job of that today, especially early on. And so it’s really cool to do that. But just a lot more happy with the execution, I think.”

Jay Johnson is proud of Paul Skenes

After the game, head coach Jay Johnson shared how proud he is of Paul Skenes.

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

“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. He just showed tonight why he was probably the clear-cut winner for that award.”