Special to the American Press

LSU’s Dylan Crews and Paul Skenes and Florida’s Jac Caglianone were announced on Wednesday as the three finalists for the Golden Spikes Award.

The award honors the top amateur baseball player. The winner of the 45th award will be announced on June 25.

LSU boasts one winner: pitcher Ben McDonald in 1989 before becoming the first pick in that year’s amateur draft and spending nine seasons in the majors.

Crews is among the nation’s best all-around stars. The junior was recently named Southeastern Conference Player of the Year for a second consecutive season. Crews has reached base in all 61 of LSU’s games, which included a 26-game hitting streak.

He is near the top of the national leaderboard in several offensive categories, including on-base percentage (second, .573), runs scored (second, 87), and average (third, .432).

The junior leads the SEC in batting average, hits (95), on-base percentage, runs scored, and walks (61) while posting a spotless 1.000 fielding percentage in center field.

Crews was voted the Baton Rouge Regional MVP honors after helping the Tigers advance to the super regional.

SEC Pitcher of the Year Paul Skenes has had one of the best seasons on the mound in recent history. After the of NCAA regionals, the junior right-hander leads all NCAA pitchers with 179 strikeouts, 41 more than the pitcher with the second-most strikeouts, in 991/3 innings pitched. In addition,