OMAHA, Neb. – Two years ago, the LSU Tigers got a gem of a performance at the Men’s College World Series from Paul Skenes, the transfer from Air Force who weeks later was the No. 1 pick in the 2023 Major League Baseball Draft.
This year, Kade Anderson twirled an equally stellar performance on the mound for LSU, holding Arkansas to one run on 3 hits over seven innings, as LSU opened the 2025 College World Series with a 4-1 win over Southeastern Conference rival Arkansas. With the win, LSU advances to face UCLA at 7 p.m. EDT Monday evening, while Arkansas will face Murray State at 2 p.m. Monday afternoon in an elimination game.
Anderson, a sophomore lefty from Slidell, La., is the No. 3 prospect for the upcoming MLB Draft according to MLB Pipeline. He walked two batters over the first two innings and face just 23 batters over 7 innings and one batter in the eighth, never facing more than four batters in a single inning in an outing that may cause his draft stock to rise even higher. His seven strikeouts increased his season total to 170, again giving him the lead in Division I baseball, passing Tennessee’s Liam Doyle, who has 163 and can’t add any more to his total.
After a 1-2-3 first inning, Arkansas starter Zach Root got into trouble in the second. First, he issued walks to Luis Hernandez and Derek Curiel, and then Daniel Dickinson laid down a bunt to the left side of the infield and legged out a single, giving the Bayou Bengals bases loaded with no outs. Chris Stanfield’s single to left scored Hernandez and kept the bases loaded. Josh Pearson hit into a fielder’s choice at short, scoring Dickinson and beating out the double play relay to give LSU runners at the corners with two outs and a 3-0 lead.
“Setting the table, the walk by Luis, the walk by Derek, a drag bunt single by Danny,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said. It was a “really good at bat by Chris, really good at bat by Michael, really good at bat by Josh. And I’ve coached enough games here to know that playing with the lead is really important. And I’m happy our team was able to do that tonight.”
At that point, Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn went to the dugout and lifted starter Zach Root after just 1 1/3 innings in favor of righty Gabe Gaeckle, who got Ethan Frey to ground out to third and end the inning.
“To me, it was a hard decision. …Anderson looked really good. It seemed like we weren’t getting good swings off of him. We were already down three runs. They had, I think, Fry coming up, he was hitting over 400 against left-handers,” Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said of the decision to lift Root. “I just didn’t feel like that we could let him score anymore. And I had a great pitcher in the bullpen who was hot. We got him up because we saw what we saw. Two walks, a hit by pitch, a hit or two, and the game is about to get out of hand.”
Staked to three-run lead, Anderson kept dealing, and Arkansas couldn’t get the offense going.
“He’s a great pitcher,” said Arkansas’s Reece Robinett. “He was mixing well, keeping our hitters off balance. And we just had to stick with an approach and stay with it and just try to put your best swing on it.”
Gaeckle kept Arkansas in the game, giving the Hogs six solid innings, allowing three hits, walking one, and notching 10 strikeouts, but they had no answer for Anderson. The Razorbacks finally found the scoreboard in the top of the sixth when Robinett led off the frame with a solo homer over the right field bullpen, the only blemish on Anderson’s evening.
“Reese hit a home run, got us kind of feeling pretty good down 3-1,” said Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn. “But really, it boiled down to Anderson just, he didn’t give us anything.”
After Anderson allowed a leadoff single to Cam Kozeal in the eighth, LSU head coach Jay Johnson lifted his starter for Chase Shores after an even 100 pitches, 70 of which were strikes. Shores came in, struck out the first two batters he faced in Arkansas’s Blake Iredell and Robinett, and ended the inning by getting Justin Thomas Jr. to line out to center.
Anderson’s performance was “what we’ve been accustomed to on the opening night of every weekend this year. I thought he got stronger as the game went along. I thought he executed pitches at a really high level, which you have to do against that offense,” Johnson said. “I thought the bullpen was great. Chase coming in with a man on base, executing, getting two strikeouts right there.”
After a one-out double by Steven Milam in the top of the eighth, a two-out RBI single by Derek Curiel scored Milam for a 4-1 Tigers lead.
Casan Evans came on to pitch the ninth, relieving Shores, who threw a perfect eighth inning with two strikeouts. Evans earned his seventh save of the season, striking out Golden Spikes Award finalist Wehiwa Aloy and getting groundouts from the Razorbacks’ Nos. 3 and 4 hitters, Logan Maxwell and Ryder Helfrick.
After throwing seven innings, Anderson said he expects to pitch again in Omaha, and could potentially face Arkansas again on Wednesday or Thursday with a trip to the championship series on the line.
Just over a month ago, Anderson threw 5 2/3 innings against Arkansas in a 5-4 LSU win, though the pitcher said that he doesn’t take as much from previous outings as he does from game preparation.
“I take every outing with a grain of salt. And just looking to prepare for the next one,” Anderson said. “Obviously, you look back a little bit, but every week’s different and how they prepare as well is different. I just continue to live in the classroom, and that’s the best part.”
Photo: LSU pitcher Kade Anderson (32) delivers to a Arkansas during an NCAA College World Series baseball game on Saturday, June 14, 2025 in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Cory Eads)
