The 2025 LSU baseball opening weekend is officially upon us, as head coach Jay Johnson announced Wednesday afternoon that sophomore LHP Kade Anderson, junior RHP Anthony Eyanson and redshirt sophomore RHP Chase Shores will form the early season pitcher rotation for the purple and gold.
True sophomore left-handed pitcher Kade Anderson earns Friday start for opening weekend
For anyone who might have paid attention to the 2024 rendition of LSU baseball, the name Kade Anderson should be plenty familiar heading into opening weekend, 2025.
Entering the purple and gold baseball program as one of the top pitching prospects in the class of 2023, it didn’t take long for Anderson to begin making an impact on the mound for head coach Jay Johnson’s program, earning his first official start on February 19, 2024, against Central Arkansas. He’d go on to log a 4.0 inning, 6 strikeout, 3 hit appearance, and it became clear early on that he had the potential to see plenty more impact performances over the next few seasons.
The 6-foot-2, 186-pound left-handed pitcher would end up doing just that, appearing on the mound 18 times over the course of the 2024 season, finishing off his freshman campaign with a 3.99 ERA and 59 strikeouts in 38.1 innings of action.
Now, as we find ourselves just days away from the 2025 season-opening pitch, we can officially say that the Madisonville, LA, product made the most of his offseason, earning himself the opening-day start for LSU baseball this coming Friday.
“Whoever you open with, and who pitches at the end of the game – you have to really trust the makeup of that pitcher, and I trust him with my life,” head coach Jay Johnson said about the true sophomore. “He’s one of the leaders on the team.”
“He’s obviously really talented. I think he’d have been a hard get to college had he not gotten hurt in high school, but I think the story is what he did from the end of last season. He finished the season great in the postseason, SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament, and then really devoted himself in the weight room over the summertime. He transformed his body and elevated the pitch ability.”
A lifelong LSU Tigers fan, Anderson will look to build on an already impressive career with the purple and gold, as he gets things started on the mound this coming Friday vs. Purdue Fort Wayne at 2:00 p.m. CT at Alex Box Stadium.
Junior RHP Anthony Eyanson to make LSU baseball debut on Saturday
The only new addition to earn an opening weekend start for LSU, Anthony Eyanson joins the purple and gold with some of the highest expectations of any transfer in all of college baseball.
Officially rated as the No. 4 transfer prospect in the class of 2024, Eyanson makes his way over to Baton Rouge, LA, following an impressive sophomore season with UC San Diego, where he logged a 6-2 record to go along with a 3.07 ERA, 85 strikeouts and a .190 opponent batting average.
“With Anthony, there’s a lot to like. Strikes, high-level pitch ability, composure, we could feel him smelling the season, so-to-speak,” Johnson continued about his opening weekend rotation. “He’s operated like a veteran.”
“I think he got done what he needed to get done in the fall, and it just kept going like that. I’m really happy to have him here, and I think he’s going to be a really good pitcher for us.”
According to Johnson, the Lakewood, CA, product has had the Saturday start solidified for a little over a week, which is all the more impressive when considering the fact that he didn’t actually make it to campus until just this year.
Eyanson will officially make his 2025 purple and gold debut this Saturday, as he’ll get the start vs. Purdue Fort Wayne, at 1:00 p.m. CT in Alex Box Stadium.
RS Sophomore RHP Chase Shores making return from injury as the starter on Sunday
This one has been a long time coming, but Chase Shores is back from injury, and will officially make his first start for LSU since March 14, 2023 this coming Sunday.
In the sport of baseball, very few operations are more disheartening than that of a UCL reconstruction, a.k.a. Tommy John Surgery. More often than not, when you hear of a player undergoing the surgery, it means that a pitcher will be out for over a year, and it’s not unheard of to see it ultimately finalize as career-ending.
Fortunately, for Shores, this was not the case for him. As a matter of fact, had the Tigers made it to Omaha last season, there was a chance he could have made his return during the 2024 year.
LSU ended up falling short of that opportunity – being eliminated in the NCAA Regional by North Carolina – but in the case of Shores, this very well might prove to have done more good than bad.
Now entering his redshirt sophomore season in 2025, the 6-foot-8, 252-pound right-handed pitcher out of Midland, TX, is fully healthy, and if you ask coach Johnson, it sounds like he may be in the best shape of his Tiger career.
“With Chase, I’ve seen enough strikes, and I like where the health’s at. I like how he’s gone about his business. I feel like we’ve had some good improvement here over the last month, and I feel like he’s ready to go.”
Possessing the ability to reach as high as 100 MPH on his fastball, Shores almost certainly has the pure talent to be a weekly starter for the 2025 LSU baseball team. If anything, it’s just a matter of ensuring that the consistency matches the ability.
We’ll get our first look at Shores this coming weekend, as he’ll make his season debut against Purdue Fort Wayne at 1:00 p.m. CT on Sunday, in Alex Box Stadium
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