Chase Shores plays the role of unexpected hero for LSU baseball in College World Series

USA Today

23-06-2025

LSU baseball won the College World Series on Sunday, beating Coastal Carolina in Game 2 of the final. The man tasked with getting the final outs was LSU pitcher Chase Shores.
Shores entered the game with one out in the seventh. LSU was leading 5-3 after a Coastal Carolina hit a two-run homer to cut the lead. Shores' first pitch was a groundout. Then Blake Barthol came to the plate, one of Coastal's top sluggers. Shores struck out Barthol on three pitches. The final pitch, a swinging strike, was 101 miles per hour. Nasty stuff.
LSU needed a reliever to step up in Omaha, and Shores delivered. In Shores last five outings, four were scoreless. In that span, he did not issue a single walk.
Shores is likely heading to the professional ranks now. He finished his LSU career on a high note, but it wasn't smooth sailing.
After LSU head coach Jay Johnson arrived at LSU in 2021, Shores was one of the first big-time prospects to commit. According to Perfect Game, Shores was a top-30 overall prospect in the class of 2022. That caliber of player doesn't always make it to campus, but LSU got Shores to Baton Rouge.
Shores made LSU's weekend rotation as a freshman in 2023. He owned a 1.96 ERA after 18.1 innings, but then Shores' freshman campaign came to an abrupt stop as the big righty was forced to have Tommy John surgery. That knocked Shores out for the rest of 2023 and all of 2024.
As 2025 rolled around, Shores was healthy. After two years of recovery, Shores made the weekend rotation as LSU's No. 3 starter.
Shores' first two starts were solid. He allowed just one earned run in 10 combined innings vs. Purdue Fort Wayne and Omaha. Shores struck out 13 and walked two. But then came the hiccups.
Shores allowed four runs vs. Sam Houston State before surrendering nine hits in five innings vs. North Alabama. Then, Shores didn't make it out of the fourth inning in LSU's opening SEC series vs. Missouri. Shores' April was up and down, and Jay Johnson made a chance ahead of LSU's series vs. Alabama.
Shores was moved to the bullpen.
Shores didn't look too comfortable there, either. Shores' first five relief appearances resulted in runs for the opposing lineup. It started to look like a lost year.
Then, Shores pitched back-to-back scoreless outings vs. South Carolina and 2.2 scoreless innings in the SEC Tournament. With LSU unable to find consistent options in the pen, that little run made Shores one of Johnson's top relievers.
That led us to the NCAA Tournament. Aside from a bump vs. Little Rock, Shores was flawless in the postseason.
Shores' emergence gave Johnson another arm he could trust. Most thought Casan Evans would be the one to close it out on Sunday, but he wasn't needed with the way Shores was pitching.
Nobody ever doubted Shores' talent. It's the same talent that will catch the attention of several MLB organizations when the draft rolls around. It was just a matter of putting it all together.
In another world, Shores stays healthy in 2023 and becomes the best Friday night starter in college baseball in 2024 and 2025. But things don't always go to script. Shores made the most of his situation and peaked at just the right time. Now he's a two-time national champion.
"I mean, he was a weekend starter on the 2023 National Championship team as a freshman. His last pitch of that season was a 97-mile-an-hour fastball that struck somebody out from Tennessee with a box rocket. And then he had to go through the 18-month recovery rehab and persevered through all of that. And there's nobody I would have rather had finish the game tonight for this second national championship than Chase Shores," Johnson said.