Having returned just one starting weekend pitcher and four core bats, this season’s Hokies baseball team is different from its 2024 counterparts in many ways. But not all.
That might sound frightening — the Hokies did lose 16 of their final 20 conference games and were outscored 30-17 in their two ACC Tournament games — but Wednesday’s media day revealed that Virginia Tech’s returning production has grown more mature and prepared.
There are no better examples than 2024 All-ACC Third Team pitcher Brett Renfrow, now in his sophomore season, and 2025 NCBWA Preseason All-American Ben Watson, a fifth-year center fielder who posted a .419 batting average with 48 RBI en route to the league’s batting title last year.
They’re two players who began 2024 with the world to prove — Renfrow was a freshman and Watson was playing his first D-I season after three years at D-III Elizabethtown — and subsequently proved it. This spring, they enter their first seasons as Tech’s bona fide superstars, and they aren’t done growing.
“It’s a little different than last year,” Watson said at the program’s media day on Wednesday. “Last year, I felt like I had to prove it to myself and everybody, and now I know what I’ve done in the past, so it’s just build off of that. But at the same time, realize we’re all hitting .000 come first pitch on Friday. So it doesn’t really matter. Just got to do it all again.”
“[For Renfrow], it’s a combination of not just how hard can [he] throw; it’s more about how well he can locate and shape pitches, and just his pitchability,” said Tech eighth-year head coach John Szefc. “I think that he’s just much more mature in how he goes about attacking hitters right now.”
Renfrow, who posted a 4.92 ERA and a 6–4 record in 15 games last season, will be in sole possession of Friday pitching duties, while Watson will start in center field and bat around third. Watson hit just four home runs in 2024, so power has been his focus in preparation for both this season and the upcoming MLB Draft.
“My slugging is coming along,” Watson said. “I think my biggest strength is the hit tool, which I don’t want to lose, so just trying to mesh the two of those together for a little more slug. … I put on some weight over the fall, and I’m definitely hitting the ball harder.”
Other returning starters include catcher Henry Cooke, who was No. 12 in D1Baseball’s preseason positional rankings but is day-to-day with a knee injury, along with catcher/DH David McCann and shortstop Clay Grady.
First baseman Garrett Michel will return to the lineup after suffering a season-ending wrist injury early last season. He played nine games and hit .400 in what looked to be an incredible follow-up to his All-ACC Freshman Team nod in 2023.
And that’s the extent of familiar faces for Tech. Questions remain, and very few seem like they’ll be answered during the Hokies’ season opener against Bucknell this weekend. Szefc will use the first few weeks to make definitive evaluations, but early hints and potential candidates have emerged.
Sophomore pitchers Madden Clement and Preston Crowl made regular appearances last year. Opponents hit just .206 against the left-handed Crowl, who posted a 5.82 ERA in six midweek starts. Szefc said Crowl improved but was sidelined for most of fall ball with arm tenderness. Right-handed Clement (2-1, 6.00 ERA in 2024) played four more innings than Crowl last season and drastically improved.
“Last year, I’m blessed to say I was able to have a little bit of success off [Clement],” Michel said. “I remember the fall World Series, I hit a homer off of him, and this year was completely different. I didn’t really have much success off him. It was kind of like a new pitcher.”
Junior Griffin Stieg would’ve contended but won’t play this year after undergoing Tommy John surgery this offseason. Right-handed graduate student Grant Manning and freshmen arms Jake Marciano (lefty) and Logan Eisenreich (righty) are also in the starting mix.
McNeese State graduate transfer Cameron LeJeune will be a big help for a Hokies team that dropped four games with five-plus run leads in 2024. D1Baseball’s No. 72 reliever, he notched 57 strikeouts over 74 innings last season with a 4.14 ERA.
Outside of Michel and Grady, the infield will likely include David Lewis at third base, who was ranked No. 32 at his position by D1Baseball. He hit .390 at D-II North Greenville in 2024. According to Szefc, second base will be manned by either Florida SouthWestern State transfer Jared Davis (.322 BA in ‘24) or sophomores Jake Slade and Ethan Gibson. Slade posted a .538 on-base percentage in limited at-bats last season, typically as a DH or pinch hitter.
Like last year, Tech will utilize multiple catchers.
“You might see three catchers play over the course of one game,” Szefc said. “Whether it be as a catcher to start the game to finish the game as pinch hitter. With guys like Cooke, David McCann, who was one of our best hitters — played a lot last year when Michel was down hurt. And then the freshman kid we have, Anderson French, will be a pretty advanced guy offensively and defensively.”
Szefc believes that Mercer transfer Jackson Cherry will transition into the ACC seamlessly. The graduate student hit .290 with 18 home runs as a right fielder last season. Speedy Radford transfer Cam Pittman and Ole Miss transfer Treyson Hughes will compete for the final outfield spot, and may even switch off. A leadoff contender, Pittman hit .357 and stole 14 bases last year. Hughes batted .237 with 22 RBI across a tough SEC schedule.
The mystique around who Szefc and his staff will field and line up on a weekly basis reflects Tech’s newfound depth. Options will be vital heading into a season that sees the Hokies play 12 NCAA Tournament teams from 2024, four of whom are ranked in D1Baseball’s preseason top 25.
“We’ll navigate [a tough schedule] with having good players and having guys that are prepared to play, and guys that can not really focus too much on what happened last year,” Szefc said. “It’s not like the skill level in this league is ever going to surprise you or anything like that. … The only thing that matters is when you start getting gameplay.”
Like last year, definitive personnel choices will come after a few non-conference showdowns. For now, Tech will look ahead to its season opener, a three-game series against Bucknell that kicks off on Friday at English Field (4 p.m. ET, ACC Network Extra).