What He Said: Kade Anderson's Gem Propels LSU Baseball Over Arkansas Razorbacks

LSU left-hander Kade Anderson's masterclass performance on Saturday night at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha (Neb.) lifted the Tigers to a 4-1 College World Series win over Arkansas.

Anderson fired 7.0 innings of work with seven strikeouts while limiting the Razorbacks to one run during his time on the bump.

Now, the Tigers are heading to the winner's bracket of the College World Series with a date against the UCLA Bruins set for Monday night.

What did LSU's ace have to say on Saturday following his dominant performance in Omaha?

What He Said: Kade Anderson Takes the Podium

Q. Kade, obviously last week you were super not happy with your performance, I guess. Just speaking of the grinding nature of the last two games that you've played in, I guess, just where do you get that strength to kind of overcome some hiccups early and battle through there?

KADE ANDERSON: That's part of the game. You don't take those for granted. It's a learning lesson. To have that experience and to learn from that outing was huge. And Coach Yeskie and I went through it and found out what was the plan for next week to be better.

And just kind of taking it all in. And that was a really cool moment. But just excited to win. That's really all that matters.

Q. Kade, you pitched a great game today. Seven innings and you held the Razorbacks to one run. I'm just curious, will we see you pitch again this tournament? Do you have any energy left after that stunning performance?

KADE ANDERSON: Yeah, I completely expect to pitch. Obviously that's not really up to me; it's up to Coach. But I want to pitch again. And this is a really cool moment for our team and we'll be ready to go.

Q. Kade, as a kid growing up in Louisiana, probably when you were this guy's age, you probably dreamed of this moment. How did you not let it get too big for you?

KADE ANDERSON: I think just taking it all in. That's why you come here. Really just proud of our team. And at the end of the day that's all you need to do is win.

And it doesn't matter the stat line kind of how this paper lines up. But we won the game and that's really all I care about.

Just a masterclass performance from #LSU’s ace in his College World Series debut.

Louisiana native Kade Anderson with a gem on Saturday night in Omaha.

- 7.0 IP
- 3 hits
- 2 BB
- 7 strikeouts
- 24 batters faced
- 100 total pitches
- 60 strikes

Gutsy performance. pic.twitter.com/MTsZ56d6JF
— Zack Nagy (@znagy20) June 15, 2025

Q. Building off that question there, felt like a very business-like approach today for the offense and Kade on the mound. Is that accurate what I'm picking up on? And how do you manage that in this stage and that crowd?

KADE ANDERSON: I think Coach Johnson does a really good job in preparing our team. And when you treat every game like a playoff, you get used to it. LSU is used to being in Omaha and that's something that we do often. We're proud to say that. But we're meant for these kind of games, and we're excited to keep going.

Q. Kade, you faced Arkansas earlier this season. What did you take away from that and learn from that game and take into tonight?

KADE ANDERSON: I take every outing with a grain of salt, just looking to prepare for the next one. Obviously you look back a little bit, but every week is different. And kind of how they prepare as well is different. So just continuing to live in the classroom, and that's the best part of it.

Q. Derek, you've been sitting here, a lot of people asking questions about Kade and his performance tonight. I would like your opinion on it. But specifically for you as well, a big hit against West Virginia with a very good left-hander out of the Big 12 in Griffin Kirn. And today against Zach Root, two huge hits against lefties. Throughout your freshman year you've been great. Can you describe these big postseason moments against left-handed pitchers you've had lately?

DEREK CURIEL: Yeah, Kade's been great. Super happy for him. He's a great teammate. I look up to him a lot. We played when we were younger. He's always been dominant on the mound. He used to swing the stick pretty good too.

I'm super happy for him. He's been great. He just does what he does. It's just business as usual. So I'm just super happy for him. He competes his butt off and I'm proud of him.

To answer your second question, just been working in the cage. Baseball is a game of failure. Just trying to my best to stay there on the lefties. And chief and I got to work keeping my shoulder in there and trying to stay on balls. And just having fun and learning from my mistakes and just getting better every day. That's what baseball's about.

Q. Derek, just the patience needed. You knew that Arkansas had some good arms, they're going to run good arms at you. Gaeckle, you've seen him before. But just the idea to stay with it and continue to battle and go with it the other way?

DEREK CURIEL: Yeah, trusting myself with two strikes, whether that's taking or swinging. I know, with my hand-eye coordination, I could be able to battle in any count. So I'm never defeated in the box, even when I go down 0-2 on two pretty ugly swings, probably my two ugliest swings of the year.

But just having confidence and sticking to my approach and knowing that he was going to go back to that pitch, staying on it.

Q. The idea that you could likely see them again -- the way this thing sets up, the way college baseball is playing this year you might see Arkansas again -- what did you learn tonight about this team that maybe you didn't know?

KADE ANDERSON: Like I said, we treated every game like a playoff. We'll be ready to go. We've faced them four times. I like the results of what we had.

Just continuing to go out there and battle. And we're not, like Coach Johnson says all the time, we're not playing Arkansas, we're playing the game. When you take that kind of note at it, it's just another game. And I think that playoff mindset has really helped us a lot.

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