Former Bay Port standout pitcher Ethan Plog made a recruiting visit to LSU last weekend. While riding in a golf cart with assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Josh Jordan, they happened to drive by former Tigers star and Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes.
Skenes yelled out to Johnson, who looked back to see who it was before stopping the cart.
Out of nowhere, simply by chance, Plog got the opportunity to meet and shake hands with the best young pitcher in baseball who was named the National League’s Rookie of the Year this month.
Skenes was asked if there were any words of wisdom he could offer Plog.
“Commit,” Skenes told him. “Commit right now.”
Who is going to argue with Paul Skenes?
Plog gathered with LSU coaches, including head coach Jay Johnson, in a conference room at his hotel Saturday night after the football team beat Vanderbilt.
He told them how much he loved the school and informed them he was committing.
Plog will join one of the elite programs in the country, a team that won the national championship in 2023 behind Skenes, outfielder Dylan Crews and 11 others who were drafted by MLB teams that July after those two were selected first and second overall.
“There was a point where I was like, I just want to see if this is a honeymoon phase,” Plog said about the trip. “I’m loving it as I’m here, I wonder what it’s going to be like when I’m gone. I was going to wait to see how I felt, but at that point I was like, ‘I don’t think this is going to change.’ It was so good.
“It feels surreal. I’ve always dreamed of playing college baseball and I would dream of playing SEC baseball. Then dreamt of playing LSU baseball. They all just went together. It was awesome. It doesn’t feel real.”
The left-hander had a breakout junior season at Bay Port in 2023 when he was named the Fox River Classic Conference player of the year after going 7-0 in nine starts and allowing just three earned runs in 50⅓ innings while striking out 84 batters.
It came one year after he closed out an upset win over No. 1 seed Sun Prairie in a WIAA Division 1 state quarterfinal and earned a save in a win over Menomonee Falls in a semifinal.
Plog had a couple of offers while at Bay Port, including one from NCAA Division I Bradley. He eventually decided on Iowa Western, an NJCAA DI school in Council Bluffs that has had more than 10 former players make the big leagues.
He was throwing between 85 to 87 mph at the time and wanted to go to a program that would be successful but also develop him at a high level.
Plog had another strong season as a senior at Bay Port and started receiving even more attention from schools once he arrived at Iowa Western. His fastball was up to 96 this summer, while his first outing in college was at 94 or 95.
Ethan Plog has bright future in baseball
There was a chance Plog never was going to play for Iowa Western. There now is at least a chance he never will play at LSU.
When you are a left-handed pitcher who throws in the mid-90s and still has room for growth, big league teams take notice.
They already did in July before the draft. He had a scout from the Seattle Mariners at his home one month earlier, while the Milwaukee Brewers also showed interest.
Plog began the process of hiring an agent to help negotiate with teams before he started college. His agent made significant progress with both the Mariners and Brewers, and Plog said his agent was attempting to finalize an agreement during the draft.
“It got close, but it never happened,” Plog said.
Plog likely would have accepted an offer that included a signing bonus of $600,000 to $700,000, making a point that it must be significant to forgo college.
He is not joining LSU until after the academic school year and still will be eligible to be selected in the 2025 draft.
Having LSU on his résumé won’t hurt when it comes to attracting MLB teams in the upcoming months, but the contract demands might be different this time.
“I think now, it would have to be more,” Plog said. “Just because if it’s not good enough, I mean, I’m going to Louisiana State. It’s a win-win either way for me.”
Plog has been on a remarkable journey the past six months that has taken him from a high school mound with the Pirates to a junior college at Iowa Western to what will be his new home at LSU in 2025.
“It’s been a grind,” he said. “I can’t express how thankful I am for the people around me.”
Plog’s parents made the trip with him to LSU. They got to meet LSU gymnast and influencer Olivia Dunne, who is dating Skenes.
Plog didn’t speak to her, he simply wanted to keep talking to Skenes and soak up every word.
“He is like the most down-to-earth guy,” said Plog, who spoke to Skenes for 10 to 15 minutes. “We talked like we knew each other. It was insane.
“I was interested in what Paul Skenes had to say about baseball. Since he was a baseball player at LSU, I wanted to hear as much information as I could.”
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Former Bay Port star pitcher Ethan Plog commits to LSU, talks baseball with Paul Skenes
Reporting by Scott Venci, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Scott Venci, Green Bay Press-Gazette | USA TODAY Network
