LSU pitcher Paul Skenes receives national player of week recognition for 5th time this season

BATON ROUGE, La. – For the fifth time in seven weeks, LSU junior right-hander Paul Skenes on Monday received National Player of the Week recognition from Collegiate Baseball newspaper.

Skenes helped lead LSU to a series-opening win over No. 9 Tennessee on Thursday night by firing 7.0 innings and allowing just one run on five hits with one walk and 12 strikeouts. Skenes fired four shutout innings before Tennessee scored a run in the fifth, and he then retired seven of the final eight batters he faced after allowing the run.

Skenes has reached double figures in strikeouts in all seven of his starts this season with a minimum of 11 Ks in each outing. He leads the SEC this season in strikeouts (83), innings pitched (44.1), wins (5) and opponent batting average (.127).

Skenes also leads the nation in strikeouts (83), hits allowed per nine innings (3.86) and WHIP (0.61), and he is No. 3 in the nation in ERA (0.81).