Tuesday Night Recap Just when things seemed to be getting back on the right track for LSU, a Tuesday night to the inferior Bethune-Cookman Wildcats caused the Tigers to start wobbling, yet again. It was a solid, back and forth baseball game between the teams for the first 6 innings of the game, but a 7th inning meltdown on both sides of the ball would lead to yet another midweek loss. The collapse started with pitching, which outside of a few arms, struggled for most of the night. Earlier in the game, it was the Wildcats simply hitting the ball around Alex Box, but towards the end, the free passes started to pile up for the Tigers. Although a freshman closed out the night strong, it was too little, too late. The offense missed plenty of opportunities, leaving 15 runners on base on Tuesday night. Hot off the heels of a 16-run, 19-hit performance that included 7 homeruns against Tennessee on Sunday, LSU’s offense fell right back in to their routine of not making the most of opportunities. That was never more apparent than the 7th inning. After a 5-run inning gave Bethune-Cookman a 10-6 lead, the Tigers immediately loaded the bases with no one out and threatened to keep the blow for blow battle going. With the top of the lineup coming to the plate with the chance to do some serious damage, Steven Milam, Jake Brown, and John Pearson struck out back to back to back to take all of the air out of another potential comeback. Pitching Marcos Paz got the start on the mound and from the looks of the 1st inning, seemed on his way to the best outing of his freshman campaign. He went 3-up, 3-down on just 5 pitches and the Tigers were coming up to bat before everyone had a chance to get settled in their seats. But, that all changed in the 2nd when the Wildcats singled three straight times to put their first run on the board. It was three hard hits, too. Some of Paz’s issues this year have revolved around throwing strikes, but that wasn’t the case. Bethune-Cookman simply hit him and for that, they deserve credit. Final line: 1.0 IP / 3 hits / 2 runs / 0 Ks / 0 BBs / 15 pitches (9 strikes, 60%) Connor Benge was first out of the bullpen on the heels of a few solid outings recently. As he often does, he was put in to try and extinguish the fire. With runners on 1st and 3rd and no outs, Benge quickly received some defensive help from Knoxville hero Cade Arrambide, who gunned down the runner from 1st base trying to steal. An RBI single would bring the runner home from 3rd, tying the score at 2-2. A strikeout got Benge close to escaping the inning, but a groundball right back to him on the mound glanced off of his glove and although he had plenty enough time to recover and make the throw, he got panicky and rushed it and was able to make the play that would have ended the inning. That’s where Jay Johnson would come out to make another pitching change, but despite the fumble at the end, Benge was pretty solid. Final line: 0.2 IP / 2 hits / 1 run / 1 K / 0 BBs / 10 pitches (7 strikes, 70%) Cooper Williams entered for a left on left matchup, but promptly allowed a double that would give the Wildcats their first lead at 3-2. LSU finally got out of the inning with a groundout to Steven Milam. Williams did not return. Final line: 0.1 IP / 1 hit / 0 runs / 0 Ks / 0 BBs / 6 pitches (5 strikes, 83%) To start the 3rd inning, Zion Theophilus took the mound. The freshman was pretty good, quickly recording a 1-2-3 frame. He returned for the 4th and despite recording his second strikeout, followed by a groundout back to the mound, a 2-out solo homerun put the only blemish on his line. Theophilus immediately bounced back to record his third strikeout to end his outing. Final line: 2.0 IP / 1 hit / 1 run / 3 Ks / 0 BBs / 32 pitches (21 strikes, 66%) Santiago Garcia entered to start the 5th and was very good outside of a few pitches. He hit the first batter of the inning and then made an errant throw on a pickoff that allowed the runner to move to 2nd base. He’d get a strikeout, but a 1-out double would allow Bethune-Cookman to re-tie the game at 5-5. The lefty then struck out the next two hitters to end the inning. Garcia’s 6th inning was by far his best, though. After drawing a groundout to Milam to start it off, he struck out the final two Wildcats for the second straight frame. He returned for the 7th, but that’s where it appeared as if fatigue became a factor. Despite a first batter pop out, a triple off of the leftfield wall, followed by a single would make the score 6-6 and end his night. His line reads worse than what he actually threw, but maybe he stayed in just a little too long. Final line: 2.1 IP / 3 hits / 3 runs / 5 Ks / 0 BBs / 46 pitches (29 strikes, 63%) Danny Lachenmayer has recently become a lefty on lefty matchup specialist and had been doing a very good job of executing going back to the Kentucky series. He did so on Friday night against Tennessee, as well. But after his Sunday appearance vs the Vols ended after just 2 pitches when he hit his batter, this one only lasted 1 pitch. Again, he hit the batter and that was all for Lachenmayer. Final line: 0.0 IP / 0 hits / 0 runs / 0 Ks / 0 BBs / 1 HBP (1 pitch) With runners on 1st and 2nd and 1 out in the 7th, Mavrick Rizy entered and this is when things started to go terribly wrong for the Tigers. After hitting his first batter while ahead in the count 1-2, the big sophomore recorded a flyout to shallow right field where Jake Brown was able to get the ball to home plate quickly and prevent any potential sacrifice fly. Now just an out away from going to the bottom of the 7th in a tied game, Rizy walked the next two hitters to bring in 2 runs for Bethune-Cookman and make it an 8-6 game, which would end his night. Rizy has been very underwhelming recently, which is tough for LSU, considering he’s the guy Jay likes to run out there the most. He led the team in appearances in 2025 and currently leads them in appearances this season, so he will need to sharpen up soon. Final line: 0.1 IP / 0 hits / 2 runs / 0 Ks / 2 BBs / 1 HBP / 19 pitches (8 strikes, 42%) Dax Dathe has been seldom-used the past few weeks, but came in with a huge opportunity to prevent further damage. He only threw one pitch and did his job, inducing a ground ball to Seth Dardar at 2nd base, but a tough hop led an E-4 and two more runs scored to make it 10-6. Jay would then turn to his final pitcher of the night. Final line: 0.0 IP / 0 hits / 0 runs / 0 Ks / 0 BBs / 1 pitch (1 strike) Reagan Ricken was pitcher #9 of the night and the final one that would step on the mound. With 2 outs and runners on 1st and 3rd, the freshman recorded a strikeout looking to end the disaster of an inning for the Tigers. Two quick outs would kick off the 8th, but he found himself in a tad of trouble after hitting a batter and then giving up an infield single on a ball that John Pearson was unable to get to. That didn’t phase Ricken, though, as he recorded a groundout to Milam to prevent the LSU deficit from growing. A leadoff single would start the 9th, followed by a sacrifice bunt to move the potential insurance run to 2nd base with just 1 out. Another strikeout looking and a groundout to new second baseman Tanner Reaves would end the inning and get LSU back to the dugout needing 4 runs to extend the game. Final line: 2.1 IP / 2 hits / 0 runs / 2 Ks / 0 BBs / 1 HBP / 38 pitches (26 strikes, 64%) Hitting Cade Arrambide stayed hot on Tuesday night, following his legendary 4 homerun performance on Sunday. Although all three of his hits stayed in the park, one came about a foot away from flying over the wall in dead center, resulting in a double. Arrambide finished 3-5 with an RBI, but even one of his outs was a hard line drive right at the third baseman. He caught on Tuesday night, so it will be interesting to see how Jay Johnson chooses to deploy Arrambide this weekend, assuming Omar Serna is healthy enough to return, which is expected. After a 7-14 weekend in Knoxville, Derek Curiel recorded his fourth straight multi-hit performance by going 3-6. He drove in 2 RBI and also scored once. He came to the plate with LSU having drawn closer at 10-7, representing the tying run with 2 outs in the 9th. He hit another ball hard on the ground and seemed to have yet another hit and extend the game, but Bethune-Cookman had him shifted up the middle and the shortstop was in perfect position to make the play and prevent any comeback. Curiel has looked like the Freshman of the Year that he was in 2025, now taking the team lead in batting average with Jake Brown slowly coming back down to Earth. Speaking of Jake Brown, he bounced back from a subpar weekend by hitting his 13th homerun of the season on Tuesday night. He finished 2-4 with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored, while also drawing 2 walks. Following a fantastic performance when desperately needed on Sunday, Eddie Yamin earned a much-deserved start on Tuesday night. He continued to do what he does best and that is get on base…a lot. Yamin finished 1-2 with a run scored, but also walked and was hit twice, on his way to a .800 on base percentage vs the Wildcats. Mason Braun made his first start of the season at 1st base and held his own. His only blemish was allowing Garcia’s pickoff attempt to sneak by him, but played well aside from that. At the plate, Braun went 1-3 and scored a run, but also reached base two other times with a walk and hit by pitch. Up Next LSU fell to 22-12 with Tuesday’s loss, marking their fifth quadrant 4 RPI loss of the season. For those that don’t follow that metric, that’s not good for their resume. It was also their fourth midweek loss of the season and we are just reaching the halfway point of conference play. The Tigers will now look to bounce back over the weekend as they travel to Oxford for a series against Ole Miss. Game 1 will start on Friday with a 6:30 first pitch. Games 2 and 3 will follow with first pitches of 4 pm and 1:30 pm central on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Ole Miss enters one game better with an overall record of 23-11, but one game behind LSU in SEC standings with a record of 5-7. Follow me on X for much more @DCBilliotJr