GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Sophomore Kade Anderson was the least renown of LSU’s weekend starting rotation going into this season.
Last season, the lefty freshman from Madisonville was mostly a second line pitcher, going 4-2 with a 3.99 ERA in 38 and a third innings through 18 appearances and nine starts. He was mainly a mid-week starter until the postseason. Junior transfer Anthony Eyanson and redshirt sophomore Chase Shores, who are the Tigers weekend Nos. 2 and 3 starters, entered the season with more fanfare.
KADE ANDERSON HAS ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A TIGER
But so far, Anderson leads the team in strikeouts with 16 and is 2-0 on the season with a 1.74 ERA. He will start for the No. 2 Tigers (8-1) against Kansas State (4-4) at 2 p.m. today in the Frisco College Classic at Riders Field in Frisco, Texas. The game can be streamed live at D1Baseball.com. Fans can visit 2025friscoclassic.d1baseball.com to obtain subscription information for today’s game and the Tigers’ Saturday and Sunday games against Nebraska (4 p.m.) and Sam Houston State (4 p.m.), respectively.
LSU is coming off a 7-3 win over No. 17 Dallas Baptist in Arlington, Texas, on Wednesday night.
Anderson struck out eight and allowed one hit and zero walks through a five-inning shutout last Friday against Omaha before giving up two walks, two hits and two runs in the sixth in a 4-2 win.
What LSU coach Jay Johnson said after the game was ear catching.
“For five innings, there hasn’t been much better pitching on that mound ever,” he said. “And think about what I just said.”
OK, if he’s just talking about the present Alex Box Stadium that opened in the 2009 season, OK. That old Alex Box era includes such LSU pitching greats as Mark Guthrie, Ben McDonald, Curtis Leskanic, Russell Springer, Paul Byrd, Chad Ogea, Patrick Coogan, Doug Thompson, Kurt Ainsworth, Brian Tallet and countless others. But the new Box era has featured such greats as Anthony Ranaudo, Aaron Nola and Paul Skenes.
But then Johnson compared him to – yes – Skenes, who had one of the greatest seasons in LSU pitching history at the present Box in the 2023 season, going 13-2 with a 1.69 ERA and an SEC record 209 strikeouts in 122 and two-thirds innings. McDonald held the old SEC strikeout record with 202 in 1989. Skenes became the national player of the year that season as he led the Tigers to the national championship and later that summer became the first LSU player to be the first selection of Major League Baseball Draft since McDonald in 1989.
“Kade was dominant tonight, and his first five innings were reminiscent of Paul Skenes two years ago,” Johnson said. “It seemed like he was 1-and-2 to every hitter. And then he was finishing them off with a strikeout or getting weak contact.”
Anderson will face Kansas State senior left-hander Jacob Frost (0-0, 3.38 ERA) today.
“I feel like there’s a lot of room for improvement, honestly,” Anderson said. “As a starter, you’re trying to go into the seventh, eighth inning.”
That could be the scenario tonight.
“He keeps getting better and stronger,” Johnson said.
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