Bethune-Cookman arrives in Baton Rouge with a 22-10 record and a chance to test itself against LSU, which enters Tuesday night at 22-11 after one of the loudest offensive weekends in recent program memory. The game is set for Tuesday, April 7 at 6:30 p.m. CT at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field, where 10,718 seats will frame a matchup LSU has owned 3-0 all time.
LSU’s latest surge came in a 16-6 win over Tennessee on Sunday, when the Tigers hit seven home runs, their most in a game since March 7, 2009, against Illinois in Baton Rouge. Cade Arrambide supplied four of them, becoming the fourth player in SEC history to hit four homers in a game, and finished 5-for-6 with seven RBI. Derek Curiel also kept the lineup moving, homering in back-to-back games Tuesday against Southern and Friday night at Tennessee. The Tigers scored 40 runs on 43 hits in four games last week and launched 15 home runs in that span, with Curiel batting.500 with one triple, two homers, nine RBI and seven runs scored, Steven Milam hitting.368 with three home runs, five RBI and five runs, and Seth Dardar hitting.353 with one triple, two home runs, three RBI and four runs.
That kind of production gives LSU a very different profile than the one Bethune-Cookman saw when the teams met in a three-game series from March 11-13, 2022, at the same ballpark. LSU swept that set, and the rematch comes after the Tigers also took a series in Knoxville over Tennessee, a result that drew a strong reaction from coach Jay Johnson, who said he was proud of the team’s comeback, the dugout energy and the way the weekend mattered to his players.
For Bethune-Cookman, a Southwestern Athletic Conference program, the challenge is immediate: survive a lineup that has rediscovered its power and a home field where LSU has already beaten it three times. For LSU, Tuesday is less about proving the numbers and more about showing Sunday was not a one-night burst, but the start of a run that could keep building against the next team in front of it.
