Derek Curiel has always been a standout for LSU baseball, but in 2026, it took him a while to get going and regain his freshman form.
When he started to heat up, head coach Jay Johnson made a change to put Curiel in the cleanup spot instead of his typical leadoff spot.
His batting average through nine games of batting fourth is .475, and he’s slugging a staggering .800 as well.
“I felt good [with the decision]. That’s where coach Johnson’s placed me,” Curiel said. “He just told me that he wanted me to hit with runners in scoring position.”
It’s something new to Curiel, but like every other part of the game, he’s trusting Johnson’s decision and is just looking to help the team in any way possible. As a freshman, he only batted cleanup once.
But in his new role this year, he has knocked in 16 runs and scored 11 himself. It’s like he’s seeing beach balls at the plate.
“We’re scoring more runs,” Johnson said. “A lot of the reason we’re scoring more runs is he’s coming up with guys on base.”
The cleanup spot is known for power hitters, which is not what Curiel is known for. But in the cleanup spot, he has raked five extra base hits, the biggest of which were grand slams in back-to-back games against Southern and Tennessee.
“He thrives in those clutch situations,” Johnson said. “That’s his DNA.”
Curiel has always been a team-first player, which is part of why he’s adapted to the new spot so well. LSU is 6-3 since he’s been moved down.
His on-base percentage is sitting at .448, which leads the team, but Jake Brown, who has been locked into the second spot, is just behind at .445. This means that LSU hasn’t really lost any chance of him getting up in the first inning.
Steven Milam has often found himself leading off now, with a .402 on-base percentage, which is only increasing after a slow start to the year.
“Steve’s a veteran college hitter,” Johnson said. “He’s done a good job controlling the strike zone lately, so he’s been on base more.”
The team’s runs per game average has also been moving upward since the change, as LSU averages 10 runs per game in those nine games as opposed to 8.6 over the season as a whole. LSU has only scored fewer than four runs once in that span.
It also allowed John Pearson to be moved further up in the lineup, who has slugged .587, which ranks among the top of the team.
“There’s a reason why coach put him in the three-hole [Tuesday],” Curiel said. “He’s been doing great handling SEC pitching.”
Pearson’s main issue is strikeouts, having been fanned 19 times in 63 at-bats. It hurt LSU majorly on Tuesday against Bethune-Cookman when he struck out to strand the bases loaded while Curiel watched from the on-deck circle.
But as Curiel said, that’s baseball. Every day and every situation is different, and more times than not, Curiel would have been able to step up to the plate there.
His move to the fourth spot of the lineup is giving LSU’s offense more life, something it needs on a daily basis at this point.
