Paul Skenes says there was 'no doubt' he was playing in Wake Forest win

LSU starting pitcher Paul Skenes dominated Wake Forest, pitching eight shutout innings. However, at one point, there was some question about whether LSU was going to send its ace on the mound at all, or potentially save him for the College World Series Final.

After the win, Skenes said there was never any real doubt that he was going to pitch in the game.

“There was no doubt,” Skenes said. “I know our strength coaches, Wes, I knew everyone was going to do everything in their power to get me ready. Everyone’s going to get everyone else on the staff ready to pitch two or three more times for the bullpen arms.”

The start was on short rest, which was where concern from the LSU coaching staff was coming from. However, it was important for the Tigers to put their best foot forward in the game. Skenes was, undeniably, that best foot, striking out nine in eight innings pitched while only letting three runners reach base. On top of that, Skenes broke the single-season SEC strikeout record in the game.

“But there was no doubt in my mind. To be honest, there wasn’t a whole lot of conversation.”

It’s unlikely that Paul Skenes pitches on short rest again in the College World Series Final against Florida, though it’s not impossible. If that was his final performance before being a very high pick in the MLB Draft, then it was an incredible way to go out at LSU.

Paul Skenes described his emotions facing Wake Forest

It was a tight game, with neither team scoring until LSU was able to walk it off in the 11th inning. That was largely due to the starting pitching performances from Paul Skenes and Rhett Lowder. Neither gave up a run in their start and that meant Skenes had to control his emotions by focusing on his own execution.

“To be honest, I think it was, it might have been cooler for the people in the stands than it was for me just because all it comes down to is just executing. I didn’t watch a whole lot of Lowder’s outing. Obviously he did really well, executed really well,” Skenes said.

“But just comes down to slowing the game down and going out there and executing.”