Paul Skenes' Opening Day dominance shows how LSU baseball's ceiling is different in 2023

BATON ROUGE - Will Morrison never had much of a chance.

Morrison, Western Michigan's leadoff hitter, would be the first Bronco to face LSU baseball star Paul Skenes; the Tigers' shiniest addition from the transfer portal and an All-American pitcher and hitter with a 99 mph fastball.

Before Morrison could blink, strike one was in the books. The left field scoreboard radar flashed: 99.18 mph. Two pitches later, he grounded out on a dribbler to the third base side.

Well, at least he didn't strike out.

That first pitch and at-bat set the tone for Skenes on Friday, as the towering 6-foot-6 right-handed pitcher struck out 12 batters and didn't surrender a run in six innings of work in LSU's 10-0 Opening Day victory over Western Michigan at Alex Box Stadium.

"Special. I don't think there's any other way to put it," LSU designated hitter Jared Jones said.

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Against strong winds blowing out to right field and with temperatures in the 40s, the conditions were in Skenes' favor. But even so, LSU's ace only surrendered three hits and one extra-base knock, a slider that he believes designated hitter Bobby Dearing got lucky in hitting hard.

Skenes consistently blew away Broncos hitters with a fastball that was consistently in the upper-90s. His 98th and final pitch of the day was 98 mph, as he could locate the offering anywhere he wanted in the strike zone throughout the day.

"(The) four-seam fastball was really consistent. I was really happy with my command of it which was something that has been an emphasis point for the past couple of weeks," Skenes said. "To be honest, I didn't expect to lean on it as much as we did today."

His slider, a pitch Skenes and pitching coach Wes Johnson had worked hard on refining this offseason, was nearly as deadly as his fastball.

The pitch had sharp movement and Skenes controlled it well, both signs of how he's improved his consistency with it since arriving at LSU (1-0).

"It's a sweeper as opposed to a gyro slider that I threw last year," Skenes said. "I didn't really know how to pitch with it last year. Didn't really know what a gyro slider was, to be honest.

"It's a different site point, different cues of walking it off to hitters. And I'm throwing it a lot more to lefties."

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Skenes didn't have the only quality performance on the mound for the Tigers against Western Michigan (0-1). Vanderbilt transfer Christian Little didn't surrender a hit in two innings in relief and freshman Micah Bucknam threw a scoreless ninth.

But LSU saw plenty of good performances from its bullpen last season. What Skenes did on Friday was different, further proving how the Tigers' ceiling of success this season is much different than a year ago with his dominant fastball and sweeping slider at the top of the rotation.

"He's going to pitch in the big leagues pretty soon after this year's over and he's going to win us a lot of ballgames this year," Jones said.

Koki Riley covers LSU sports for The Daily Advertiser and the USA TODAY Sports South Region. Email him at kriley@theadvertiser.com and follow him on Twitter at @KokiRiley.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU baseball: Paul Skenes dominate Western Michigan in 2023 opener