LSU’s Dylan Crews and Paul Skenes named as finalists for Golden Spikes Award

LSU’s Dylan Crews and Paul Skenes are two of the three finalists of the 2023 Golden Spikes Award by USA Baseball. 

Crews and Skenes are joined by Florida two-way player Jac Caglianone. The winner of the 45th Golden Spikes Award will be announced at 1:30 p.m. CT on June 25 on ESPN leading into game two of the College World Series finals. 

Both Crews and Skenes were named the player and pitcher of the year by the Southeastern Conference. Skenes was recently named national player of the year by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.

LSU hasn’t had a Golden Spikes Award finalist since Alex Bregman in 2015, but Crews and Skenes are the 11th and 12th LSU players to be finalists, tying Miami for the most all-time by a single program. This is only the eighth time in the award’s 45-year history that one school has multiple players as finalists. It’s also the second time LSU has had two finalists — both Russ Johnson and Todd Walker were finalists in 1994. 

Crews has reached base in all 61 of LSU’s games this season, and is near the top of the national leaderboard in several offensive categories. He’s second nationally in on-base percentage (.573), runs scored (87) and is third in batting average (.432). He leads the Southeastern Conference in batting average, on-base percentage, runs scored and walks (61). 

He was most recently named the Baton Rouge Regional MVP, while Paul Skenes also made the all-tournament team for tossing his first complete game against Tulane on Friday, June 2. 

Skenes is the nation’s leader in strikeouts (179), a 41-strikeout gap stands between him and second-place strikeout leader, Nolan Santos, of Bethune-Cookman. He also currently leads the nation in strikeouts per nine innings (16.22), WHIP (0.79) and is third in the nation in strikeout-to-walk ratio (10.53). 

Both Florida and LSU have one winner in the history of the Golden Spikes Award. LSU’s was right-hander Ben McDonald in 1989, while Florida’s was catcher Mike Zunino in 2012. 

Florida’s Caglianone leads the nation with 31 home runs, which is a single-season record for the Gators. He’s fifth in the country with 84 RBIs and sits in first in the SEC and second in the nation with 194 total bases. On the mound, he holds a 3.78 ERA over 16 starts and has allowed the third-fewest hits of any pitcher in the SEC, holding opponents to a .184 batting acerage against. He’s the sixth player from Florida to be named a finalist for the award.