GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
The legend of Kade Anderson continued Saturday night as he handcuffed one of the nation’s best hitting teams in Arkansas for a 4-1 victory at the College World Series in front of 25,464 at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska.
IT IS GEAUX TIME FOR LSU AFTER 1-0 START IN WORLD SERIES
But Anderson, the Madisonville magician, prefers to speak about the legacy of LSU.
“It doesn’t matter – the stat line,” the sophomore left-hander of deft delivery said simply after becoming the nation’s leader in strikeouts with 170 in 110 innings, passing Tennessee’s Liam Doyle (164 in 95 and two-thirds innings).
But Doyle is done for the season. Tennessee lost to Arkansas in the Super Regional last weekend. LSU’s just getting Omaha warm.
“When you treat every game like a playoff, you get used to it,” Anderson said. “LSU’s used to being in Omaha, and it’s something that we do often. We’re proud to say that.”
KADE ANDERSON SOUNDED LIKE HE KNEW OMAHA BEFORE HE GOT TO OMAHA
Even though Anderson is in Omaha for the first time, he knows. LSU is at its seventh College World Series since he turned three on July 6, 2007. Since he was 9 and aware, the Tigers have been five times. They won their last national championship in 2023 when he was just out St. Paul’s High School and bound for LSU.
The Tigers are celebrating their 20th trip to Omaha this week.
“We’re meant for these kinds of games,” Anderson said.
Especially, when he’s pitching. Anderson went to 11-1 on the season by holding the nation’s No. 15 batting average team coming in at .313 to three hits in 24 at-bats for a .125 average. Two singles and a solo home run. Outside of Reese Robinett’s home run in the sixth, no one got to second base when Anderson was in the game.
Meanwhile, LSU hitters struck out 16 times with 10 by reliever Gabe Gaekle. But Anderson overshadowed all that. Because LSU’s 1-0 in Omaha.
And when LSU wins the opening game of a College World Series, it is “meant” to win the national championship. Since 1991, the Tigers are batting 7-for-9 in such scenarios with 1-0 becoming No. 1 in 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2009 and 2023. The two times LSU won the CWS opener and didn’t win the national crown, it still made a deep run in 1998 and 2017.
“We’re excited to keep going,” Anderson said.
Conceivably, Anderson could pitch two more times – one to get LSU close to or in the best-of-three championship series and another in the championship series.
Arkansas will likely see Anderson again, and the Razorbacks are probably not looking forward to it.
“Really, it boiled down to Anderson,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “He didn’t give us anything. He’s 11-1 because he’s really good. That’s all I’ve got.”
And when Anderson reached 100 pitches – still throwing in the mid-90s – in the eighth inning after allowing a lead-off single, redshirt sophomore Chase Shores came in throwing over 100 mph and struck out two in a shutout inning.
Then Casan Evans came on in the ninth for his seventh save, allowing a lead-off single, but then got three straight outs. He threw only 13 pitches. He’ll be back. He could start.
But Horn couldn’t stop talking about Anderson, who didn’t let a very tight strike zone stop him. He threw only 60 strikes out of the 100 pitches, but walked just the two.
“He really just doesn’t leave the ball over the middle of the plate,” Horn said “Even his misses are close. He missed a lot of pitches away to righties that you could tell he was a little frustrated that it was that tight.”
But it didn’t bother him.
“Changes speeds just enough,” Horn said.
And LSU scored “just enough,” as LSU coach Jay Johnson said.
“I thought he got stronger as the game went along,” Johnson said of Anderson. “He’s never boxed into having to throw a certain way, which as a hitting coach, makes it tough to plan against him, because he can always pivot. He’s got a plan for any type of hitter – left, right, power, good bat-to-ball type guy. Those guys are special. They don’t come along very often.”
But if Johnson keeps getting these Legend pitchers – Paul Skenes, Kade Anderson, Casan Evans – he’s going to start rattling off multiple national championships like another legend who built the legacy Anderson spoke of – Skip Bertman.
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