LSU Baseball Turning Point Update: Forget Last Week – This Instant Easter Classic On Rocky Top Is It!

April 5, 2026 Glenn Guilbeau Featured, LSU Baseball 0
LSU has a new watershed moment for the 2026 season on its way to Omaha, Nebraska, and the College World Series - The Easter Sunday Rally. (Twitter photo).

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

Call it the Easter Sunday Rising.

Most thought the turning point of LSU’s season was last Sunday’s 17-10 win over Kentucky after a 7-0 deficit in the third inning as LSU took its first series in the Southeastern Conference this year.

Well, this Sunday’s 16-6 thriller in 12 innings at Tennessee after a 5-0 deficit through four innings and 5-1 after six took the candy. After nearly 40 days and 40 nights – 32 to be exact – of pedestrian baseball from Feb. 24 through March 27 by the Tigers, this was it. For now.

LSU (22-11, 6-6 Southeastern Conference) is 5-1 since March 28, but this one had the swagger of LSU’s most swashbuckling team in history – the 1997 national champions, who hit an NCAA record 188 home runs that still stands.

From the fifth inning through the 12th, LSU hit seven home runs with Cade Arrambide hitting four of those in the role of Brandon Larson, who never hit four in a game in 1997. But he hit three in a game twice in that 57-13 season and still holds LSU’s record of 40 that season, which is fourth in NCAA history.

Ten LSU players going back to Jack Walker against Ole Miss in 1936 have hit three home runs in a game, including Eddy Furniss, who did it three times (1995, ’96 and ’98) at the height of Gorilla Ball and holds the school career record with 80 over that span.

But only one as of Sunday has hit four in a game – sophomore catcher/designated hitter Cade Arrambide of the Houston area. He hit solo home runs in the fifth, seventh and 11th and a grand slam in the 12th for an 11-6 lead to finish 5-for-6 with seven RBIs and four runs scored.

“I felt like I was in the zone,” Arrambide said as if on cue.

Ya think?

“And I knew this morning, I was feeling good, my batting practice, everything,” he said.

Arrambide did not play last weekend because of a sore shin from the bumps and bruises of catching and was gradually brought back in the fold.

“I was just in there focused on my plan,” he continued as if he’d memorized the hitter version lines of pitcher Nuke Laloosh from the “Bull Durham” screenplay. “Compete, compete, run good at-bats, and get a pitch I can drive.”

And they kept pitching to him. Yes, he was the eighth batter and came in hitting just .262 and was 2-for-15 (133) with eight strikeouts over his previous seven games. But c’mon.

“What a special performance by Cade,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “That win is definitely up there in my coaching career. I mean, what a comeback by our team. I’m just so proud of our players. There were so many layers to what happened, and so many players making huge contributions to the win. There were so many guys who made clutch plays. This is important to them. We’ve fought a lot here lately, and this is a great weekend for our program.”

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On top of beating Kentucky, 7-0 and 17-10, last Saturday and Sunday to take the series when Johnson said, “That’s my team out there today. That’s our program out there today.”

And amazingly, LSU is still playing sloppy. The Tigers committed four errors Sunday. Only one of Tennessee’s six runs was earned. And LSU has not led in the early part of a game since last Saturday.

When they clean up the defense and start taking some early leads, look out.

The pitching Sunday allowed all of five hits and only three until the sixth inning.

Speaking of those “layers” Johnson spoke of beyond Arrambide at the top of this Easter basket, consider pitcher Gavin Guidry. He was scheduled to start, but instead he entered in the seventh in trouble as a short reliever and pitched like a starter. Johnson congratulates him below in this tweet.

Guidry (4-3) allowed one run on two hits in five and a third innings with one walk and a strikeout for the win. Grant Fontenot started and pitched well for two and two-thirds innings, allowing two hits and no earned runs. Tennessee took a 1-0 lead on him in the third after the fifth error of the season by first baseman Zach Yorke, who plays the least difficult position in the field.

Zac Cowan gave up a grand slam to Blaine Brown for the 5-0 deficit in the third – with two of the runs charged to Fontenot unearned and two to Cowan unearned. Cowan settled down and allowed no more hits, zero walks and struck out three in four innings.

LSU pitched well most of the weekend. Tennessee had just three hits in its 4-1 win on Saturday.

Also consider that the Tigers limped into this series with backup but regularly used infielders Trent Caraway and Brayden Simpson unavailable with an illness and an injured hand.

Then freshman catcher Omar Serna Jr., who has split time with Arrambide, was injured in a collision at the plate in the third inning. No. 3 catcher Edward Yamin IV came in and went 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI single. He was one of five players with two or more hits.

And LSU won its second straight SEC series without weekend starter Cooper Moore (3-3, 3.38 ERA), who will be out another week or two with a triceps injury.

“It was tough early, and we had every opportunity to kind of just say, ‘Here we go again, things aren’t going our way,'” Guidry said after the game. “And everybody in the dugout refused to say that and just kept fighting, staying in it because anything can happen.”

Then LSU lost Johnson, who pushes buttons and substitutes probably better than any coach in college baseball.

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While trailing 5-4 in the ninth with two outs and a runner on first, Johnson got tossed after vehemently charging home plate umpire Eric Goshay over a very low, delayed called third strike on Arrambide.

As far as in-person viewing in the dugout, Johnson missed the game-tying, two-out RBI single by Jake Brown to tie it 5-5 in the ninth. And if that doesn’t happen, Arrambide doesn’t get to hit two more home runs.

Then Johnson missed Arrambide’s home run in the 11th and his grand slam in the 12th. He also missed LSU setting a record for most runs in an extra inning frame with 10 in the 12th. And he missed Guidry retiring the side in order in the ninth, 10th and 12th.

But he was watching.

“Yes, saw every pitch,” he said. “Tennessee game operations were outstanding!”

Asked if pitching coach Nate Yeskie or Arrambide took over for him, Johnson didn’t hesitate.

“Arrambide – head coach,” he said. “Called the go-ahead homer sign in the eleventh and the grand slam sign in the twelfth.”

It was must-see TV.

“Usually, when I get kicked out of the game, most of the time I explain it like I’m dead and watching my life happen,” he said. “I’ve never felt more alive in my life than watching the extra innings there.”

Meanwhile, his team is alive and kicking.

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