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LSU pitcher William Schmidt walks from the dugout during warmups for the game against Milwaukee on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026 at Alex Box Stadium. STAFF FILE PHOTO BY MICHAEL JOHNSON
JACKSONVILLE. Fla. — A chilled February sun gave up on VyStar Ballpark here late Sunday afternoon, instead focusing its energy on the Jacksonville Jaguars’ stadium next door and a huge orange cantilever bridge spanning the St. John’s River, carrying traffic speeding east toward the Atlantic.
Inside the park, on the mound, LSU pitcher Williams Schmidt didn’t need the sun. He was hot enough on his own. Full wattage, as he mowed down Central Florida batter after batter in what wound up a seven inning, 11-0 Tiger victory to clinch the Live Like Lou Jax College Baseball Classic.
If you follow baseball, particularly local baseball, you know who Schmidt is. The wunderkind who carved out a legendary prep career at Catholic High, going 9-0 as a senior in 2024 with a microscopic 0.44 earned run average and 102 strikeouts in 63-2/3 innings. So good he was projected to be at least a mid first-round major league draft pick in 2024.
“You can’t teach stuff, and he’s got stuff,” LSU legend former major league pitcher Ben McDonald said a week earlier while calling Schmidt’s outing against Milwaukee. “Major league stuff.”
That stuff hadn’t always shown itself in college quite yet. Yes, Schmidt was 7-0 with a 4.73 ERA as an LSU freshman, but mostly in midweek starts. He threw all of 1-2/3 innings during the Tigers’ postseason run to their eighth College World Series title, both appearances in late relief.
As a sophomore, Schmidt has done enough, shown enough to be penciled in as LSU’s Sunday starter, beating out a raft of other talented arms on a pitching staff that may prove to be deeper than last year’s.
His first start, Feb. 15 against Milwaukee, was a win. Schmidt is already 9-0 as a Tiger. The other numbers were decent if not overwhelming: four innings pitched, three runs allowed on three hits with nine strikeouts and three walks, all adding up to a 6.75 ERA entering the UCF game.
When the lanky 6-foot-4 sophomore strode to the mound in the top of the first inning, you quickly got a sense that this was going to be an awesome outing. The “stuff” Big Ben raved about crackled. Schmidt looked confident and in command of himself and the Golden Knights’ batters.
“The stuff is electric,” UCF coach Rick Wallace said (there’s that word again). “When he’s got dominating stuff and is landing multiple pitches, you get caught in between and you can’t do that.”
Schmidt went five strong innings, allowing three hits while striking out seven and walking just one. He gave up a one-out single in the second to a UCF who got stranded at first, a leadoff double in the fourth to a batter who reached third on a wild pitch but got stuck there when Schmidt struck out the side, and another single in the fifth paired with his walk that also came to nothing. Mavrick Rizy threw two innings of hitless relief to close it out.
“Dating back to intersquad that’s his third really good performance in a row,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said of Schmidt. “He filled the zone all day. All of his pitches were for strikes. Even when he’s not doing good he beats the bats, which he did today.”
It’s early yet. Just two weekends in. But in the part of Florida they call the First Coast, Schmidt looked like an explorer who planted his flag as if to say “I, Prince William, have arrived.” Actually, he left here with a mini version of the orange boxing-like title belt for earning tournament MVP honors, but it was flag like.
“I could get all three of my pitches in the zone when I wanted to,” Schmidt said. “They were checking off speed, so I could land those for strikes. The defense really helped a lot on multiple plays.”
LSU’s other two weekend starters appear to be about on the same path. Casan Evans (0-0, 6.48 ERA) hasn’t quite arrived yet, while Cooper Moore (2-0, 3.09) gave a second straight fairly impressive performance in Saturday’s 9-4 win here over Notre Dame.
Whoever the top three wind up being by season’s end, if the Tigers can have three dependable and durable starters they will be mighty tough to beat once again. No, LSU isn’t pitching and hitting against Southeastern Conference powers yet — UCF is picked 10th in the 14-team Big 12 — but the offense is already humming. The Tigers scored 34 runs in three games here on 40 hits (only three of them home runs, two by Cade Arrambide including one Sunday) and now have 97 runs in their first eight games. First eight wins, rather, which is LSU’s best start under Johnson and equals the Tigers’ best start since 2019.
You figured LSU would hit overmatched pitching this weekend. What was hard to figure was how the starters, the only parts of the team that made you go “Well?” coming here, would fare.
On balance, the firm of Evans, Moore and Schmidt did well enough. For the first time, the balance tipped to Schmidt. If that continues, the sun may not set on these Tigers until they get to the end in Omaha once again.