You could probably count the games on one hand from last year's LSU baseball season in which the Tigers got six innings from their starting pitcher, no errors from anyone in uniform and a shutout.
In its 2023 season opener, on a chilly, windy Friday afternoon in Alex Box Stadium, No. 1 ranked LSU nailed that trifecta in a 10-0 blanking of Western Michigan.
Behind flawless fielding, three LSU pitchers combined for a three-hit shutout and 12 strikeouts, the most by Tigers' hurlers in a season-opener since 1995.
Air Force junior transfer Paul Skenes was as good as advertised as the Tigers’ starting pitcher with 10 strikeouts in six innings.
Freshmen starters designated hitter Jared Jones, right fielder Paxton Kling and catcher Brady Neal combined for three RBI, three runs and two hits including Jones’ double and Neal’s triple.
The only downer of the day was highly North Carolina State sophomore transfer third baseman Tommy White leaving the game with a first-inning shoulder injury. It happened shortly after his first pitch RBI single scored Kling with LSU's first run of the season.
White's early exit caused some anguish for Tigers' fans, but LSU second-year head coach Jay Johnson said afterwards he didn't think the injury was too serious. He added he didn't expect White to be sidelined for an extended amount of time.
Johnson was very satisfied about how his team efficiently took care of business after months of build-up of how this squad might be one of the most talented in LSU baseball history.
"More than anything, I just wanted us to play with maturity," Johnson said. "I thought we did that across the board. You can see the talent, but our guys did a great job with the focus and staying in the moment."
Though the Tigers scored three runs in the first two innings and didn't score again until their five-run sixth, their three scoreless innings in between didn't matter because Skenes put WMU bats in a deep freeze.
"My stuff has improved throughout the fall and winter," Skenes said. "It's more refined, just knowing myself a little bit better as a pitcher.
"I knew how special (his LSU debut) will would be for me and I wanted to make that happen. I had some nerves this morning, but once I got to the field it was business as usual."
Jones' 3-2 two-RBI double lit the fuse on LSU's five-run sixth inning that gave a cushion to Tigers' relievers Christian Little and Mitch Bucknam. Little, a junior transfer from Vanderbilt delivered two flawless innings. Freshman Bucknam closed the shutout throwing a scoreless ninth inning.
Jones credited Johnson for preparing he and fellow freshmen starters Kling and Neal for such poised debuts.
"Coach Johnson did a great job of letting us know that we starting," Jones said. "He talked us through of slowing the game down and taking deep breaths on-deck and even in the dugout before we went up to bat.
"We also have been facing the best staff in college baseball for the last six months (in practice), so we were well prepared."
Eight Tigers combined for nine hits off four WMU pitchers. Preseason national Player of the Year junior centerfielder Dylan Crews was the only LSU player with two hits.
Saturday’s game two between LSU and WMU starts at 1:30. Returning junior pitcher Riley Cooper, who has started just three times in 59 college appearances in his first two seasons at Arizona in 2021 and LSU last year, is set to start for the Tigers.
