"That (relationship) is something that has helped me a lot," Anderson said.

All they did on Thursday night at L. Dale Mitchell Field was play a baseball game against Oklahoma, but it won't be a night either of them will ever forget.

Anderson tossed a complete game shutout. The sophomore left-hander struck out a career-best 14 batters, tossed a career-high in pitches and threw LSU's first complete game shutout since AJ Labas did it in 2018.

His brilliance pushed LSU past Oklahoma for a 2-0 victory and 1-0 series lead. It was the first complete game shutout tossed against Oklahoma since 2015.

"I'm speechless about that performance," junior Jared Jones said. "Obviously, my freshman year with Skenes here, I've seen a lot of great pitching performances ... Not a lot of words to describe what just happened."

Anderson used his full arsenal to fool Sooners hitters throughout the night. The changeup was an effective weapon low and away to right-handed hitters. The fastball was consistently thrown for strikes. He wasn't afraid to mix in his curveball with his slider.

Yeskie controlled what Anderson threw and when from the jump. But for reasons beyond baseball, it wasn't an easy night for him. Yeskie's father died on Thursday.

"I think it was the ultimate display of toughness tonight to stay in the game like that," LSU coach Jay Johnson said. "(To help Kade) execute in the midst of that going on I think it speaks to who coach Yeskie is. And who he is, to me, is a great friend and the best pitching coach in college baseball."

After LSU's pitchers and catchers concluded their annual postgame meeting, the two embraced with a big hug and tears streaming down Anderson's face.

"It's funny how those kind of things happen in (those) situations," an emotional Anderson said. "So it's obviously tough. Feel for him. The type of guy he is, he will continue to get to work and kind of go at it."

To finish the game, Anderson forced a pop out to second base, fly out to right field and fielded a ground ball hit back to him for the final out. He ended the night throwing 135 pitches, blowing past his previous career-high of 101.

Johnson said that Anderson getting an extra day of rest (eight days off instead of seven) before his next start on Friday against Auburn factored into his decision to keep him in the game.

"I think the tempo he was pitching with, it seemed like he was getting ahead in the count more as the game went along," Johnson said. "And I did not think they were seeing him very well. (It was a) combo of his tempo and they were clearly disrupted. So I felt like I would give them momentum by taking him out of the game."

He did, however, acknowledge that if a runner had reached base in the seventh, eighth or ninth innings, and he was forced to pitch out of the stretch, he would've come out of the game.

"The fact that he was getting stronger, the fact that he's well conditioned for it," Johnson said. "It was, honestly, some of the easier decisions in a tight game we've had this year."

LSU's offense was held at bay by Oklahoma right-handed starter Kyson Witherspoon for most of the night. But it only took two innings to hand the Sooners' ace the loss.

The first run came across in the third inning when freshman Derek Curiel cracked a two-out double before Jones drove him in with a single. Facing a full count, Jones slapped a slider on the outer half to the opposite field.

"I just wanted to get a pitch up and drive in a run," Jones said. "Coach Johnson always says, 'Get the one when there's one to get.' So that's all I was trying to do."

The Tigers (28-3, 8-2 SEC) went down in order in the fourth but then tallied another run in the fifth inning thanks to a leadoff double from senior Luis Hernandez and a run-scoring double by junior Chris Stanfield.

Witherspoon exited after allowing a leadoff double to Hernandez in the seventh. The Oklahoma (23-6, 5-5) star finished the night allowing six hits and had as many strikeouts as doubles allowed (four).

"He just did a good job mixing pitches," Jones said. "Obviously, he's one of the best pitchers in the country. Throws really hard, and then with that cutter slider (he did) a good job keeping us hitters off balance."

MLB.com lists Witherspoon as the No. 26 overall prospect in this summer's draft. He entered Thursday's contest with a 2.31 ERA and 64 strikeouts in 39 innings (seven starts).

"What a win," Johnson said. "What a win to beat that guy."

The Tigers' offense ended the night with just six hits. Hernandez led the charge with a pair of doubles, but the top six hitters in the order went a combined 3-for-23 with one extra-base hit.

"I thought (we had) really quality at bats when we needed them the most," Johnson said.

LSU and Oklahoma square off for Game 2 of the series on Friday. First pitch from L. Dale Mitchell Park is set for 6:30 p.m. and the game will be available to stream on SEC Network+.