Paul Skenes is as good as advertised. He went 6.1 innings on Friday night, allowing four hits as he totaled 11 strikeouts against Texas A&M as LSU secured a 9-0 victory.

There were questions surrounding this LSU team as it entered conference play about the validity of its record. It entered the game 16-1 but hadn’t played a lot of good teams.

LSU put those talks to rest as they took Game 1 on the road in College Station.

Gavin Dugas got it started in the top of the first inning as his sacrifice fly scored Tre Morgan and Josh Pearson’s RBI single to score Dylan Crews made it 2-0 Tigers after one inning.

In the top of the third inning, LSU would tack on two more runs as Morgan scored on a wild pitch and Crews scored on a Tommy White single to make it 4-0.

Nate Ackenhausen came into pitch for Skenes in the bottom of the sixth inning and he did an incredible job as he went 1.1 innings allowing zero runs on three walks and three strikeouts.

In the top of the ninth inning, LSU blew the game wide open. White started it off with a two-RBI single. With bases loaded, Pearson walked to bring home another run. Jared Jones hit a sacrifice fly and Dugas scored on a groundout by Alex Milazzo to take a 9-0 lead.

Christian Little got the Tigers out of a jam in the bottom of the eighth inning and he stayed in to finish the game in the ninth. He retired all three batters he faced to secure the 9-0 win.

With the win, LSU moves to 17-1 this season. They will play Game 2 in College Station on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT.

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Story originally appeared on LSU Tigers Wire