You may not have heard his name before this past weekend, but if you’re an LSU baseball fan, you’ll likely never forget it after what he did on Easter Sunday.
Cade Jordan Arrambide (pronounced Air-em-BEE-day), a sophomore catcher from Tomball, Texas, became the first LSU player in the school’s history to hit four home runs in one game to lead LSU to a come-from-behind 16-6 victory at Tennessee in 12 innings.
We heard most of the game on the car radio, driving back to Alexandria from a weekend jaunt to visit my sister-in-law in El Dorado, Ark. As exciting as the contest was, starting in the seventh inning, it rekindled my love for baseball on the radio. It would’ve been a great game to see on TV, no doubt, but there’s something about baseball and radio that were made for each other.
Another compelling thing about this game was it was the “rubber” game to determine the winner of the regular season series between the last two NCAA baseball champions. Tennessee, remember, won it all two season ago before LSU won it last year. For the second time in three years.
LSU trailed 5-0 early and the Tigers were down 5-1 when, in the seventh inning, the Tigers suddenly metamorphosized into the “Gorilla Ball” Tigers of the late 1990s.
It was as if Zeus showed up and started handing out lightning bolts in the LSU dugout in place of the customary bats. They got back-to-back-to-back home runs from sophomore John Pearson, Seth Dardar (of bat-flipping fame after a home run last week vs. Kentucky) and Arrambide to pull within 5-4.
Jake Brown got an RBI single in the ninth – the same inning LSU coach Jay Johnson got ejected after arguing a called third strike – to tie the game and force extra innings. Jake Brown is a footnote now in the game, but what a crucial hit to bring in the run that allowed the history and excitement that happened in the extra innings. Johnson was a spectator for the final innings from the press box at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Both teams scored a run in the 11th (with Arrambide’s third home run in the top of the inning giving the Tigers a brief lead) to go into the 12th inning with a 6-6 score.
In the 12th inning, LSU scored 10 runs. The Tigers took a 7-6 lead and Arrambide belted his school record fourth homer – a grand slam to boot – for an 11-6 lead. That blast didn’t hit the stadium lights in the outfield, causing them to rain down sparks like fireworks, but it did prompt LSU play-by-play broadcaster Chris Blair to observe the Volunteer fans were heading en masse for the exits.
In Louisiana lore, it just might be the shot heard round the college baseball world. It seemingly awakened a sleeping giant. Meanwhile, Gavin Guidry (4-3) of Lake Charles, who was scheduled to start but instead came on in relief, pitched 5 1/3 solid innings, allowing just one run on two hits.
LSU had four errors in the early innings, but the Tigers had 19 hits – including seven homers – to score 16 runs and win the series, two games to one. The victory evened LSU’s SEC record to 6-6 and returned LSU (22-11) to the national rankings at 24th.
Arrambide is a name that has roots in the Basque region of Spain, and Cade (a sturdy 6-3, 208) equaled his total number of homers all last season with the four he notched on Sunday. His Texas hometown of Tomball is a “family-friendly” suburb 37 miles northwest of Houston. He achieved SEC Academic Honor Roll honors last year as a freshman, and as a senior at Tomball High School he led the team to the Class 6A state championship and was ranked as the No. 1 catcher by MLB.com in its 2024 draft rankings.
Lest he get the big head, Arrambide might consider the fate of one Marshall McDougall, who owns the NCAA record for home runs in a game with six for Florida State in May of 1999. He went 7-for-7 in his historic game with NCAA game records for RBI (16) and total bases (25).
His MLB story? He played part of one season (2005) for the Texas Rangers, batting .167 in 18 games.
For now, Arrambide and the Tigers are the talk of college baseball after winning that pivotal marquee SEC series at Tennessee on Easter Sunday. The tomb in which many naysayers were ready to bury them is open.