LSU baseball ace Paul Skenes just pitched his first game in the College World Series − and did he throw heat.
Out of the 123 pitches thrown against Tennessee in Saturday’s game, 46 of them were at or above 100 mph − all while logging his 200th strikeout of the season.
The first inning alone was impressive for Skenes, with seven straight pitches at that speed at Charles Schwab Field.
Of course, the adrenaline of pitching on college baseball’s biggest stage plays a big factor on Skenes’ velocity but he was consistent in the triple-digit range for quite some time.
He hit 100 at least once every inning and was still recording that mileage deep into the seventh.
His stats on the mound were just as impressive as his speed with 12 strikeouts and one walk through 7 2/3.
Although his fastball is something that shakes batters to their core, the other pitches in his mix do quite some damage as well.
His moving and breaking pitches did a good job fooling almost every batter that stepped up to the plate, with Tennessee only coming up with five hits and two earned runs over the course of Skenes’ outing.
Even Cubs right-hander Marcus Stroman took the time to compliment the flamethrower’s arm on Twitter.
Before becoming LSU’s ace, Skenes was a reliable arm for Air Force for two seasons where he was developed into a starter by his second season. In 2022, he went 10-3 in 85 2/3 innings pitched with a 2.73 ERA and 96 strikeouts.
GENTRY ESTEES: Paul Skenes just too good for LSU vs Tennessee baseball at College World Series
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Paul Skenes stats: How many 100 mph pitches for LSU star vs. Tennessee?