Jonathan Mailhes
By Hunt Palmer
The coach-player relationship works in stages.
For Nate Yeskie, his two years with Kade Anderson moved quickly, and the final product was a masterpiece. Anderson’s transition to lanky freshman lefty to College World Series Most Outstanding Player came from tireless work and some natural talent.
Anderson was only asked to make one start in SEC play in 2024, and it didn’t go well. He didn’t make it out of the first inning against Auburn.
“A lot of time when you’re a freshman you’re going up, especially in this day and age, against kids are getting a fifth year maybe six years,” Yeskie told Matt Moscona on After Further Review. “When you’re 18, like most kids coming out of high school. When you’re 24-25, you should be in Double A. And that’s just not the case anymore. It’s a challenge mentally. It’s a challenge physically. It’s a challenge emotionally. And Kade was up to the task.”
Anderson showed flashes in his first college season, striking out 13 at Southeastern Louisiana and six in 2.2 innings of work in the Chapel Hill Regional.
Over the summer and into the fall, Yeskie started to see more maturation.
“You knew it was coming at some point based on how he went about his business,” Yeskie said. “In Kade’s sense, it was getting a better sense of reading guy’s swings. A lot of times during games, he and I would communicate things, and we would recognize some things that we discussed. Once he started recognize those things, it was just a matter of just getting the heck out of his way and letting him go compete.”
Anderson answered the bell time and time again for LSU, out-dueling aces like Jared Spencer of Texas, Kyson Witherspoon of Oklahoma and Zach Root of Arkansas.
His best came last, though, a 130-pitch complete game shutout of Coastal Carolina in game one of the national championship series.
As is often the case, the warmup and early action didn’t indicate history was in the making.
“I thought he was spraying it a little bit, even in the bullpen,” Yeskie said. “I was like, ok, he’ll reel it in at some point. And he did. The blessing of having stuff, and the blessing of having four pitches. At times they started to adjust, and he would go on to something else that was working for him.”
Anderson struck out the side in the fourth and retired nine of 10 during the middle innings.
“He struck guys out with the changeup, the curveball, the slider, the fastball,” Yeskie said. “And he was just ahead enough of each guy to get himself where he needed to and pick up the victory. At times he needed to make a pitch, he stepped up and made the pitch, and that’s a quality you see in guys who are winners in this sport in particular. Sometimes you might not be very good early in the count, but late in the count when it matters if you can buckle down and make it.”
He made them all, finishing off a 1-0 win.
Yeskie recalled Kevin Abel’s performance in the 2018 College World Series when, as a freshman, Abel pitched a two-hit shutout to beat Arkansas in game three.
That finished off Yeskie’s first national championship as a pitching coach. Anderson’s gem propelled his Tigers to No. 2.
“I suppose it’s like having a couple of different kids in your family,” Yeskie said of the titles. “You love them all the same. They’re all unique and different in their own way. I’m certainly happy for our fans and this group of kids that put forth a lot of work…They played their best brand of baseball down the stretch and some teams challenged us, and that’s good. That’s probably what makes it a little more gratifying on top of it.”
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