Luke Holman: LSU's new ace on the mound
The LSU Tigers have officially found their new ace, and his name is Luke Holman.
Holman began his collegiate career in Tuscaloosa as a reliever for Alabama. In his freshman season, Holman made 15 appearances where he threw 19 innings, giving up 13 runs on 12 hits and eight walks while striking out 24 batters.
Entering his sophomore campaign, Holman was named the midweek starter for Alabama, but that didn't last long. After a stellar start to the season, Holman quickly worked his way up to being the Tide's Friday starter by the time conference schedule came around.
Holman would excel in that role. In 15 starts, Holman boasted a 7-4 record behind a 3.67 ERA. In 81 innings, the righty struck out 87 batters and gave up just 33 earned runs.
After months of domination on the mound, Luke Holman and the Crimson Tide were set to make the trip to Baton Rouge for a weekend series against the Tigers, meaning we'd get to see two of the best pitchers in the nation, Luke Holman and Paul Skenes, duke it out under the bright lights of Alex Box Stadium.
Unfortunately, that did not take place. Luke Holman was ruled out the day of the game, and from there, a whole insider trading conspiracy unfolded which resulted in Alabama's head coach getting fired.
The Tide would go on to finish the season strong and hosted a regional. In their first game of the tournament, Holman earned the start and threw 6.0 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and two walks.
Alabama swept their regional and moved on to face No. 1 Wake Forest. Holman once against earned the start of Friday, but the Demon Deacons had their way with the Tide's ace. They scored five runs on six hits in 5.2 innings en route to a 5-4 victory over the Tide. They'd go on to knock Alabama out of the tournament with another win on Saturday.
After the season ended, Holman decided it was time for a change of scenery and hit the transfer portal. About a month after the Tigers won the College World Series, Holman announced his decision to transfer to LSU as he continues his quest towards a national championship.
Throughout the preseason, we saw Holman dominate the Tigers hitters and it looked like he was primed to have a big season in Baton Rouge. About a week before opening day, Jay Johnson announced that Holman earned the Saturday spot with Thatcher Hurd starting on Friday. However, it didn't take long for Holman to take over as the Tigers ace.
In his first two starts, Holman went 2-0, giving up no runs on five hits with 18 strikeouts in just 12.1 innings of work. With his dominance and Hurd's struggles, Holman was awarded the Friday spot when the Tigers traveled to Houston to take on the Texas Longhorns in Minute Maid Park.
In his biggest test of the young season, Holman continued to look like a true ace. He threw 5.2 scoreless innings, striking out 12 batters en route to his third victory of the season.
I'm going to preface this by saying this: I'm not at all comparing him to Paul Skenes. He was one of, if not the best pitcher that college baseball has ever seen and there will be nobody like him for a long time.
With that said...Holman's numbers through three games have been as good, if not better than Skenes was through his first three games in the purple and gold.
Through three starts, it's hard to argue that Holman hasn't been the best pitcher in the nation. In fact, he earned National Pitcher of the Month honors from The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association on Monday.
Currently, Holman is tied for first in the nation in ERA (0.00), tied for third in wins (3), eighth in strikeouts (30), eighth in WHIP (.56) and tied for 20th in strikeout-to-walk ratio (15.00).
He is one of the best pitchers in the country. He is the Tigers ace.
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