Despite a cumbersome start, Virginia Tech baseball took a 9-2 opening-day win over William & Mary on Friday.
Pitchers Brett Renfrow, Preston Crowl and Chase Swift combined for 16 strikeouts and no walks. Crowl notched career-highs in strikeouts (seven), pitch count (74) and innings pitched (five), while Swift struck out five of his six batters. The Hokies (1-0) set an ACC-era program record for opening day strike percentage (72%), throwing 125 times for 90 strikes.
They also gave up just one free base all game — a fourth-inning error by shortstop Pete Daniel.
“It’s hard to lose when you give someone one free base and you don’t walk anybody,” Tech head coach John Szefc said. “I’ll be honest with you, nothing our pitchers did surprised me.”
Crowl entered in the third inning after a 28-pitch start for Renfrow, which Szefc said was planned despite the junior ace surrendering a two-run home run to Liam O’Daniel in the second inning, which got caught in the Blacksburg wind and hardly scraped over the left-field wall.
Crowl, a junior, struck out three of his first four batters and finished with seven. He allowed just three hits over five innings, which shattered his previous career high of three innings pitched. Szefc said Crowl’s growth has put him in consideration for the starting rotation.
“Starting is something I’ve been striving toward,” Crowl said. “We’ve been building up more volume, slowly increasing pitch counts and volume. … It wasn’t really something we talked about, but it just kind of happened. I built up for it all winter, back in fall and spring.”
Swift followed with a comparable final pair of innings. Nobody reached base on his watch, and he retired five of the Tribe’s last six batters swinging.
“Watching those guys go out — Crowl, Renfrow, Swift — today was unbelievable,” sophomore first baseman Sam Grube said. “Sixteen strikeouts, no walks. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. It was unreal.”
Grube, a Mount St. Mary’s transfer from Mechanicsburg, Pa., was impressive in his own right, hitting three doubles for as many RBI and walking in his only other plate appearance. Friday was his first game with an ACC team and his debut at first base at the collegiate level, but he was up to the challenge.
“I was ready to go,” Grube said. “The jitters go away when you’re waiting this long to play.”
Grube’s second plate appearance came in the fourth inning and resulted in his team’s first hit of the day — an indication of an awkward start for Tech.
Tribe starting pitcher Luke Calveric walked five batters and hit three, so early baserunners were plentiful, but the Hokies struggled to find a momentous swing. That contributed to the early 2-0 hole brought upon by O’Neil’s homer in the second.
In the bottom side of that frame, returning outfielder Treyson Hughes plated Anderson French in sacrifice — who walked and advanced to third off two wild pitches — to halve the deficit. It still took two more innings to find a hit, and the Hokies started 0-for-6 in RISP scenarios.
“That guy was effectively wild,” Grube said of Calveric, who missed all of last year with an injury. “It was hard to sit on a pitch because he was everywhere. I got hit in the first inning and then he dots three fastballs away the next at-bat. It was hard.”
Calveric left the game in the third inning after hitting Henry Cooke for a second time and sending George Washington transfer Sam Gates a four-pitch walk, but it wasn't until the fourth that Tech’s offense woke up.
Daniel took a 3-2 walk in that inning before Grube doubled him into third. Hughes tied the game at two with a groundout for his second RBI, and the Hokies took a 3-2 lead on Owen Petrich’s subsequent double. The floodgates opened in the fifth against the Tribe’s third pitcher, Charlie Seneker.
WIth two outs, French hit Tech’s first home run of the season 412 feet over the right-field wall to make it 4-2. Daniel followed with a single before Grube doubled him home — his second of the day. Tech cruised from there, scoring in all remaining innings while the Tribe struggled to find an arm that could answer.
“I’ve been waiting to see him hit a homer for a while,” Grube said of French, a fellow Pennsylvania native. “I’ve seen it in intersquads. We were good friends growing up, on rival high schools and now finally on the same team. It was great to see.”
In the sixth, Gates hit a sacrifice fly to plate Cooke, who advanced to third off a walk and wild pitch. Grube hit a two-RBI double in the seventh following singles from Daniel and Ball to make it 8-2. Ball, a freshman infielder, hit 2-for-5 with an RBI, which he earned in the eighth inning by plating Gates after his walk and steal.
“Our gameplan the whole weekend was to get into the pen, keep seeing more arms,” Grube said. “I feel like we did a really good job of that today.”
The Hokies finish their weekend against William & Mary with a doubleheader on Saturday. Griffin Stieg will start the first game (1 p.m. ET) after missing last season with an injury. Freshman Ethan Grim is expected to start Game 2, which starts at approximately 4 p.m. ET.
Virginia Tech baseball home games will not be televised until Tuesday, March 3, vs. Marshall, though radio broadcasts will be available on the Virginia Tech Sports Network.
Injury note: Szefc said that senior infielder Clay Grady broke his wrist in a scrimmage last Saturday and will be out for around three weeks. Grady was expected to slot in at second base on opening day after serving as Tech’s shortstop for three years.
Box Score: Virginia Tech 9, William & Mary 2