Paul Skenes’ final first pitch in Alex Box Stadium clocked in at 102 miles per hour, 7 hours and 6 minutes after it was first supposed to cross the plate Saturday night.
LSU coach JayJohnson knew that this could happen. That’s because both he, Kentucky coach Nick Mingione and NCAA officials wanted Saturday’s first game of the Baton Rouge super regional to start and not stop until the last out of the game was recorded, he said Friday.
No stoppages. No weather delays. No more sacrificing “the integrity of the game.”
If the teams had to wait out a line of showers, he said, then so be it. So with rain expected, fans were sent home at 2 p.m., only to return five hours later, wait 60 more minutes and get pushed out of the stands again around 8 p.m., when that rain finally arrived at the ballpark.
All the while, frustration mounted. Tension built. And patience dwindled. But if it all affected LSU after it was finally time to start, the Tigers didn’t show it. They routed Kentucky 14-0 to move within one win of the College World Series.
As for the delays, Johnson said the NCAA made the final call. The game was pushed back initially to avoid a batch of lightning that was expected to strike around 3 p.m.
“I’m very comfortable with it,” he said. “And as I said earlier, this is a big job. This is an important job. And therefore, I focus on what I can control, which is the preparation of our team when they say go. And they didn’t say go until 9:06. We tried a couple times, but it wasn’t going to work.”
Skenes opened the game with force. Ten of his first 15 pitches topped 100 mph. Kentucky — a small-ball hitting team that likes to advance runners with sacrifice bunts, grounders and fly balls — didn’t put its first runner in scoring position until Nolan McCarthy hit a double along the right-field line in the sixth inning.
By then, Skenes still had his trademark speed and power. To escape the jam, LSU’s ace unleashed four consecutive fastballs — with both the first and the last touching 101 mph — to end the inning and escape the jam with a strikeout of Devin Burkes, who went down swinging.
The Golden Spikes Award finalist threw 101 pitches. He struck out nine, allowed only four hits, walked only one, and most importantly, put in 7⅔ innings of work, saving most of the LSU bullpen that likely will be needed against the Wildcats. It was a classic Skenes performance, even more impressive considering the long delay.
“Our team plays better because of (Skenes), in terms of physical performance,” Johnson said. “But we’d be here all night if I talked about the person. They don’t come around like that. A-plus human being and character as it gets, and that’s why the talent ascends to the level that it has. We’re talking Michael Jordan-type stuff.”
Skenes said he went home during the first delay to eat some lunch and play with his dog.
During the second delay, he didn’t emerge from the clubhouse until about 40 minutes until the rescheduled 8 p.m. start. But not long after he started tossing light warm-up throws in right field, Johnson walked over and the two chatted.
Then Skenes sulked over to the bullpen area, slung a backpack over his shoulder and walked out the right-field fence. He spent the next hour brooding, he said, staying loose and daydreaming about the force of the crowd.
“The whole time I was sitting in there for the delays,” Skenes said, “all I was thinking is that 12,452 people are gonna go home and drink beer and be even louder.”
On Saturday, the weather — or the threat of it, at least — caused problems. But it neither interrupted Skenes’ last start at Alex Box Stadium nor cut it short. Instead, those 12,000 fans in attendance, either jammed in the right-field bleachers or crowded around the concourse, saw one of his best outings as a Tiger.
One that ended with a 90-mph slider, tossed 9 hours and 30 minutes after the game was supposed to start. The last batter he faced went down swinging. And Skenes walked back to the dugout to a standing ovation.
“It’s been really cool to be welcomed here and to enjoy the crowd,” Skenes said. “I was looking forward to this start for a while.”