It’s Friday night in Baton Rouge, and Paul Skenes is laughing.
It’s not a joke, though, that has LSU’s ace chuckling. The source of humor is his own dominance, wearing a smile after punching out his 12th batter.
Nor is he smiling alone. Sitting more comfortable than usual in the first base dugout, the normally stoic Jay Johnson permits a brief grin. It’s the smile of a coach who knows he has the best pitcher in the country, as close to a certainty as exists anywhere in college baseball.
But before the best pitcher in the country was sharing a smile with his head coach at the Powerhouse of College Baseball, before he became feared by every opposing hitter and coveted by every MLB scout in America, he was a catcher and cadet – too large for the cockpit, too good at throwing strikes to keep catching them, and too talented to not pursue his dreams.