As Gavin Guidry stood on the mound at the College World Series—one pitch away from securing LSU’s seventh baseball national title—he couldn’t help but crack a smile.
Before taking the field to start that inning, Guidry was in the dugout chatting with Tigers ace Paul Skenes, who many (including Guidry) thought would throw the ninth.
So when Coach Jay Johnson told Guidry the team was sticking with him, he and Skenes embraced in a hug and began fantasizing about the final out.
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“I told Paul, ‘I need to strike the last guy out,’” he says.
Four batters later, he got his opportunity. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Guidry worked Florida’s Colby Halter down to his final strike.
And with the purple-and-gold crowd on its feet, Guidry stepped off the mound and took a quick look around the stadium to soak in the moment.
“I made eye contact with Paul, and he was jumping up and down like a little kid,” Guidry says. “I just couldn’t help but laugh seeing that big ol’ dude jumping up and down, staring right at me just giggling. It was a pretty cool moment.”
Guidry did, of course, get the game-winning strikeout—cementing his spot in LSU Baseball history.
It was a storybook ending to a magical season, and it was full of chapters Guidry never expected.
As a pitcher at Barbe High School in Lake Charles, Guidry compiled an 8-0 record with a 0.16 ERA and 83 strikeouts. But as a freshman at LSU, he worked almost exclusively as an infielder in the preseason. He didn’t think he would pitch his first year on campus.
“Coming into the spring, I never would have expected I would have been on the mound and making as big of a contribution,” Guidry, 20, says. “It’s pretty cool looking back and seeing where I was in January and then the part I got to play toward the end of the year. Never in a million years would I have guessed that would have been me doing that.”
Guidry finished the season with 23 appearances on the mound, posting a 3-0 record with a 3.77 ERA, 42 strikeouts and three crucial saves.
That experience and versatility will be impactful for LSU again this year.
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The rising sophomore has been working as both an infielder and a pitcher throughout the offseason.
“It’s still kind of unknown what I’m going to be doing fully,” Guidry says. “I’m working on trying to manage the workload and stay healthy for our team to have the best chance to win. (Last year) gave us a blueprint—to see how hard we had to work and how good our team was and everything we put in. … It’s gotten guys comfortable playing on the big stage, so we’re going to have that advantage.” lsusports.net
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Tommy White
His flowing locks, gold chains and giant, technicolor sunglasses alone are hard to forget, but White has already cemented his place in LSU Baseball history. His walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th inning against Wake Forest propelled the Tigers into the championship round of the College World Series last season. And his 105 RBIs (the most in the country) didn’t hurt, either. In 2024, the slugger is a top MLB Draft prospect. He’s also pledged to donate a portion of his NIL earnings to Empower 225, a nonprofit that supports at-risk youth, through his Tiny Tanks initiative.