If LSU southpaw Kade Anderson is the No. 1 pick of the 2025 MLB Draft, Game 1 of the Men’s College World Series will be a reason why.
The All-American sophomore dominated Coastal Carolina with a shutout to put his team one win away from its second NCAA title in three years. His final line: eight innings, three hits, zero runs, five walks and 10 strikeouts on 130 pitches in a 1-0 win.
It was the first shutout thrown in the MCWS finals since 2018.
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The win also snapped a best-in-the-nation 26-game win streak for the Chanticleers.
Anderson is ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 3 prospect of the upcoming draft and is one of the top options for the Washington Nationals with the No. 1 pick. His main competition appears to be Oklahoma high school shortstop Ethan Holliday, son of former MLB All-Star Matt Holliday.
The 20-year-old Anderson has three different pitches ranked as plus by Pipeline and he showed off all of them on Saturday. His fastball sat in the mid-90s while his slider and changeup regularly fooled hitters.
“Lot of credit to our defense, I didn’t have that many strikeouts so a lot of credit to them,” Anderson said after the game, in which he, again, posted 10 strikeouts.
LSU needed every shutout inning, with Coastal Carolina’s Cameron Flukey and Dominick Carbone holding the Tigers to six hits and one run. They got the sole run of the game in the bottom of the first inning. when a leadoff walk from Derek Curiel opened the door for a Steven Milam RBI single.
They’ll get their first chance to clinch the title on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET.
Here’s everything that happened in Game 1 of the Men’s College World Series final via Yahoo Sports:
