Paul Skenes becomes SEC strikeout king, breaking Ben McDonald’s single-season record

Paul Skenes is the SEC’s new strikeout king. LSU’s star pitcher broke former Tiger Ben McDonald’s single-season record of 202 strikeouts during Thursday’s elimination game.

Skenes picked up No. 203 during the 2nd inning of LSU’s clash with Wake Forest for a spot in the College World Series Finals. It was Skenes’ 3rd K of the game, ending the inning.

THE NEW SEC SINGLE-SEASON STRIKEOUT KING ?

2️⃣0️⃣3️⃣ and counting for the great Paul Skenes ? pic.twitter.com/xAkAesJDxc

— ESPN (@espn) June 22, 2023

McDonald is on hand in Omaha and has called College World Series games, but he is not in the booth for Thursday’s broadcast, which features Karl Ravech, Kyle Peterson and Chris Burke.

Skenes broke the SEC’s K record at a remarkable rate of 15.6 per 9 innings.

Strikeouts per 9 innings

Ben McDonald (1989): 11.9
Paul Skenes (2023): 15.6 pic.twitter.com/SkRkvnktyQ

— SEC Baseball (@SECbaseball) June 22, 2023

Entering the bottom of the 3rd inning, Skenes has 4 Ks on 27 pitches. No. 5 national seed LSU and No. 1 Wake Forest are currently scoreless. The game is airing on ESPN2.

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.