LSU Baseball has made SEC history with the announcement of the conference’s yearly honors this week, as voted on by the league’s 14 head coaches.
Dylan Crews has been named SEC Player of the Year for the second straight season while Paul Skenes was named the Pitcher of the Year.
LSU is now just the third school in the conference to have both the Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year in the same season, joining Georgia (2008) and Florida (2018).
Crews is the second player in the history of the conference to win Player of the Year on two separate occasions and the first to ever win the honor in back-to-back seasons. LSU now becomes the only school with a two-time SEC Player of the Year (Crews) and two-time SEC Pitcher of the Year (Aaron Nola).
Crews, a Longwood, FL native, leads the league and is seventh nationally in batting average at .423 with 14 homers, 13 doubles, and 57 RBIs. He also leads the league in runs scored (79), walks (56), and on-base percentage (.573).
He is 2nd nationally in on-base percentage and runs scored while being #3 in walks. The junior has now reached base in the last 59 games, dating back to the final four games of the 2022 season.
“To be named SEC Player of the Year two years in a row is an incredible accomplishment for Dylan,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said. “His consistency is next-level special. He is the best player in college baseball. I am proud of Dylan for being the best player in the best league two years in a row; you can’t represent LSU Baseball any better than the way Dylan does.”
Crews was also named to the 2023 SEC Community Service Team, partnering with Team of Dreams in Gonzales, an all-abilities baseball league that caters to the youth and young adults who use wheelchairs and persons with both physical and intellectual disabilities.
Crews and his family buy four tickets for every game and give them to families with special needs children. He then meets with the kids and signs autographs after the games.
Skenes, a Lake Forest, CA native, leads the SEC in wins (10), ERA (1.77), strikeouts (164), innings pitched (86.2), and opponents’ batting average (.161). He is now second on the school’s all-time strikeout list behind Ben McDonald, who had 202 punchouts in 1989.
Skenes has allowed two or fewer runs in 11 of his 14 starts on the season and was named SEC Pitcher of the Week three times. He also received National Player of the Week recognition from Collegiate Baseball Magazine seven times.
“Paul is the best pitcher, both mentally and physically, in college baseball and is very deserving of SEC Pitcher of the Year,” Johnson said. “He has put together as dominating of a season as you can, and he has done it while also being the unquestioned leader of our team both on and off the field.”
The Tigers’ ace leads the nation in strikeouts, strikeouts per nine innings (17.03), WHIP (0.75), and strikeout-to-walk ratio (10.93). Skenes is third nationally in hits allowed per nine innings (5.19) and he ranks fourth in ERA.
He is sending $10 to Folds of Honor for every strikeout during the season. Folds of Honor is a nonprofit organization that provides educational assistance to the spouses and children of military and first responders that have died or are disabled.