Kade Anderson showed he was up to the task in the biggest moments of last month’s College World Series, leading LSU to its 2nd national title in 3 years. And now, the left-hander who dominated college baseball in 2025 is officially the property of the Seattle Mariners, who made Anderson the No. 3 pick of Sunday’s Major League Baseball Draft in Atlanta.
Anderson stamped his greatness at the college level and cemented his place in LSU baseball lore with his performance in the College World Series Championship Series against Coastal Carolina. In Game 1 of the best-of-3 series that could have gone either way, and with momentum in the series hanging in the balance, Anderson was simply brilliant. He pitched a complete-game shutout, allowing just 3 hits and striking out 10 while working around 5 walks. Anderson threw an astounding 130 pitches, 83 of them for strikes, and he did it all with no margin for error because LSU’s 1 run in the first inning was its only run of the game.
But that was the only run the Tigers needed on June 21, because Anderson wasn’t letting Coastal Carolina dent the scoreboard at all. LSU won, 1-0, and the next day the Tigers won again to clinch the series without needing a third game. Anderson was named the College World Series’ Most Outstanding Player, and exactly 3 weeks later he achieved another dream by being selected in the MLB Draft.
Anderson was very high among all MLB Draft mock boards, so it’s no surprise that it didn’t take long for him to be selected on Sunday night. Now, he’ll be starting a new journey in the majors after achieving glory at LSU.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
