Bethune-Cookman baseball lives by the ‘Opening Day’ mindset, a belief that no matter how good or bad things are currently, you enter the next day 0-0.
It’s a clean slate, a healthy outlook for a 60-plus game season.
And for head coach Johnny Hernandez, he sees it as the perfect stressor for his Wildcats. It’s a team built on veteran leadership and continuity, who entered 2026 with strong NCAA tournament hopes.
“Every win, we’re going to celebrate, but the moment we wake up we’re punching in that clock — that blue-collar approach, lunch-pail mentality-type effort,” Hernandez said. “The guys have bought into it. No game is too big and no loss is too low, so as long as we keep it even keeled the rest of the way, we’ll be ok.”
The mindset has paid off so far for B-CU, which has mowed through its SWAC competition and stunned a few SEC giants. They are on the brink of 30 wins with a record of 29-11 and have taken down then-No. 24 LSU and then-No. 20 Florida in a span of a week, the first time the program has secured two ranked victories in a single season since 2009.
It’s quickly becoming one of their best regular seasons in school history, putting the college baseball world on notice for them and for HBCUs as the NCAA tournament nears.
“They bought into the mindset that there's an opportunity to really be the first HBCU baseball team (ever) to go out and win a regional,” Hernandez said.
A SEASON-SHIFTING LINEUP CHANGE
The stars were aligning for Bethune-Cookman ahead of 2026. The Wildcats brought back most of their lineup from last season, who helped the program reach the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2017. Although losing everyday starters like catcher Irvin Escobar and outfielder Daniel Figueroa, they shored it up with transfers Erick Almonte from UCF and Maikol Lucena, who attended Indian River State College.
Quality pitching depth was an area Hernandez said he and his staff wanted to recruit after last year, where the team’s ERA was 5.27. They currently sit at 4.66.
But to Hernandez, these patches seemed to still have holes midway through the year, even though they were winning. He felt that his team wasn’t “playing good baseball within the game.” This caused him to make a lineup change: moving left fielder Darryl Lee to the one-hole, third baseman Andrey Martinez up to the two-spot and shortstop Almonte down to six hole.
“We've had every starter get one or two hits in every game (since then),” Hernandez said last Thursday. “It feels like everyone's gotten more comfortable with where they are in the lineup. And again, it doesn't happen without the buy-in of the players being put in those situations.”
Bethune-Cookman was 20-10 before the change and are 9-1 since then, including historic wins against LSU and Florida.
BETHUNE-COOKMAN TAKES DOWN LSU IN BATON ROUGE 🔥🔥��
— 11Point7 College Baseball (@11point7)
Lee manned the one-hole last year at B-CU, and most of his career, so being back in the top spot came naturally to him.
“I wasn’t being the leader that I needed to be for the team early in the season,” Lee said. “Now I’m starting the game off, getting those guys some pitches to see…and that was just comfortable for me.
The team has averaged 11.7 runs since April 4, the first game with the new lineup. With the offense’s success — especially against conference opponents — it has allowed B-CU to save key arms for midweek matchups.
This has given the Wildcats confidence on both sides, able to lean on one another, and battle against their gauntlet-like non-conference schedule — an early test for what would come in the postseason.
“The offense can get stalled for one or two innings, but our offense is built (so) that in a hurry, we can put up three, four, five, six, seven runs like we did against Florida,” Hernandez said. “(There's) no pressure on either side because we know those guys are going to come through for us.”
PUTTING THE WORLD ON (HBCU) NOTICE
Hernandez said his phone rang off the hook after beating LSU. It was an endless amount of praise from all walks of life he’s interacted with throughout the years.
The 10-7 win was a major feat for the program: its first regular season win against a ranked opponent since 2014, but Hernandez and his team saw it as something bigger: the future of HBCUs.
“It changes the narrative (that) HBCUs can't compete against the nation's best,” Hernandez said. “It opens up the realm, especially in the athletics world that we're in with the transfer portal where guys can take a serious look at HBCUs because of the schedule that we do play here.”
HBCUs have struggled against top 25 opponents in the past for numerous reasons: wins aren’t guaranteed every year, resulting in many overlooking most of them versus a top team from the Deep South, or even players leaving their HBCU to transfer to a ‘bigger school.’
So, the Florida win was massive. It was the second ranked win for an HBCU roster filled with players that didn’t leave for other opportunities, spearheaded by a coach that is a two-time HBCU graduate — a tale for most HBCUs.
JUSTIN MORALES SLAMS THE DOOR 🔥🔥🔥
— 11Point7 College Baseball (@11point7)
Bethune-Cookman beats Florida in Gainesville, their 2nd straight SEC win. Wildcats were 1-37 vs Florida entering tonight.
“The grass isn’t greener on the other side, it’s where you water it,” Hernandez said. “We make an emphasis on building relationships with each one of our student athletes here…and as we invest in them…they invest in our program with their hard work, with everything that they do, resembling the spirit of Mary McLeod Bethune.”
Lee and center fielder Sergio Rivera are products of that: two players from JUCOs that believed in what B-CU was building. Now, they are winning at the highest collegiate level, exemplifying success that could be achievable for more HBCUs.
“At the end of the day, every university in the nation has the same amount of hours to practice, so it’s about how hard you go,” Rivera said. “We always work hard…and we made a statement the last two weeks, and it opened eyes for the rest of the SWAC that they can do it too.”
EYEING A RETURN TO THE TOURNAMENT
After Martinez's walk-off homer sent Bethune-Cookman to the NCAA tournament last year, they went 0-2, a sign of how difficult it is to win amongst the country’s 64 best teams. Entering 2026, it has now been nine years since they’ve won a game on that stage.
No HBCU team has ever won a regional either, another monkey on the back.
But with this season’s success, backed by last year’s experience, the team is confident that this could be the year they make history.
“We were one hit away from beating Northeastern in an elimination game, we were a couple hits away against Florida State from beating them in the opening round,” Lee said.
“They know what it's like to have 10,000 fans screaming at you and all the craziness that goes with the game,” Hernandez said. “You see that veteran leadership and experience again, highlighted by the two wins against LSU and against Florida.”
The Wildcats sit atop the SWAC standings, holding the conference’s best ERA (4.66) and second-best batting average (.307).
With this resume, one might think their focus would already be on the postseason, but instead, B-CU takes it one game at a time. They understand that each day brings a different challenge and lesson, deriving from their ‘Opening Day mentality.’
So if Bethune-Cookman reaches its second straight NCAA tournament, the added pressure and nerves won’t worry them. They’ll be somewhere in their comfort zone. Excited for the moment. Ready for another baseball game and another opportunity to perform.
“The teams that we are playing are good and they are going to be able to score just like we can, but just because they can score doesn’t mean we have to go away from it. We can do exactly what they do.”
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