OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — During its rise as a national power in the 1990s, LSU built its identity on prodigious home run numbers, a style coined “Gorilla Ball.”
The game changed over the decades, and so did the Tigers. They still have plenty of offense, but pitching is the name of the game in the bayou nowadays.
LSU's pitching prowess was omnipresent in the College World Series as the Tigers won their second national championship in three years with a two-game sweep of Coastal Carolina in the finals.
The Tigers posted a CWS-best 2.60 ERA over five games, and opponents batted .205 and just .145 with runners in scoring position.
Most Outstanding Player Kade Anderson, who threw a three-hit shutout in Game 1 of the finals, had an 0.56 ERA with 17 strikeouts in 16 innings over two starts.
Anthony Eyanson turned in a strong start in Sunday's 5-3 win in Game 2, striking out nine over 6 1/3 innings.
Chase Shores made four relief appearances, earned two saves and retired seven of the Chanticleers' last eight batters in the title-clinching win.
“If you’re a pitcher and you don’t want to come here right now, you’re out to lunch,” Tigers coach Jay Johnson said. “You’re not thinking clearly, because that’s three dudes that pitched in the series that are all going to be in the major leagues within 18 months.”
The 2023 championship team had one of the most potent offenses in the country with Dylan Crews and Tommy White, but it didn't overshadow the pitching staff.
Paul Skenes, the CWS Most Outstanding Player, was the No. 1 pick in the MLB amateur draft, right ahead of Crews. Ty Floyd, the Tigers' No. 2 starter, also was a first-rounder.
Since 2022, Johnson's first season at LSU, 18 of the Tigers' 26 draft picks have been pitchers. That includes two of four in 2022, eight of 13 in 2023 and eight of nine in 2024.
Three of the four LSU players listed among MLB.com's top 85 prospects for next month's draft are pitchers. Anderson's performances in Omaha could put him in line to be the second No. 1 overall pick in three years for LSU.
The Tigers have maintained consistency on the mound even though they've had three pitching coaches in four years. The first was Jason Kelly, who left to become head coach at Washington. Wes Johnson was in charge in 2023 and left to become head coach at Georgia. Nate Yeskie just finished his second year after being hired away from Texas A&M.
“He always says he’s coaching us for the player he thinks we’re going to be rather than the player we are right now," Shores said. “So just holding us to the higher standard just allows us to go out there and just work really hard and do our job.”
Johnson said he was happy Shores was on the mound when LSU locked down the championship. The 6-foot-8, 252-pound right-hander was a weekend starter to open 2023 and injured his right arm six weeks into the season. He had Tommy John surgery and missed the entire 2024 season. He was throwing 100 mph as he closed out Coastal Carolina on Sunday.
“He had to go through the 18-month recovery rehab and persevered through all of that,” Johnson said. “And there’s nobody I would have rather had finish the game tonight for the second national championship than Chase Shores.”
Shores originally pledged to Oklahoma State before flipping to LSU three years ago. Johnson laid out a plan for him and told him he would make a run at a national championship if he went to LSU. Shores won two.
“Coach Johnson just made me feel wanted," he said. "He was persistent in the way he was recruiting me. Once you get to campus, he keeps recruiting you, because that’s just the coach he is. I’m really thankful I ended up coming to LSU.”
AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
LSU players celebrate their 5-3 win over Coastal Carolina in Game 2 of the NCAA College World Series baseball finals in Omaha, Neb., Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
LSU starting pitcher Anthony Eyanson throws against Coastal Carolina in the first inning of Game 2 of the NCAA College World Series baseball finals in Omaha, Neb., Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.
Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.
Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.
“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.
About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.
Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.
The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.
Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.
In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.
“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.
Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.
The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.
Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.
"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.
There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.
The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."
Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.
Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.
Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.
Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
