Virginia Tech baseball fell apart upon the removal of ace Brett Renfrow at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, on Friday, giving way to a 10-0 run-rule loss to No. 23 Texas A&M in seven innings.
The Aggies (9-0) battered Hokies (7-2) relievers Preston Crowl and Brody Roe with eight runs, hitting five times with three straight doubles while taking advantage of perpetual pitching errors. Before that inning, though, Renfrow kept a high-torque A&M offense in check, allowing just two runs while stacking seven strikeouts with one walk.
His offense didn’t do much to support him, however, hitting just 5-for-26 and 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Second baseman Ethan Ball and left fielder Nick Locurto were both 2-for-3 — all singles besides Ball’s first-inning double — and advanced to scoring position with each hit, but were stranded each time.
Aggies lefty Shane Sdao, facing his highest-profile bats since missing all of last season with an injury, struck out five Hokies, walked one and allowed just four hits in six innings of work — which was nearly the entire game with the run rule being executed after the top of the sixth.
Sdao saw four or fewer Tech batters in four of his six innings before Cole Hubert relieved him in the seventh, adding another such inning to end the game.
The Aggies’ offense transformed the game in the sixth with the beginning of Preston Crowl’s relief outing. The junior dominated in his first appearance of the year against William & Mary but has struggled since. He surrendered six earned runs to Rutgers in Tech’s 16-1 loss last weekend, and holds a 10.80 ERA after another off night Friday against the Aggies.
Texas A&M pinch hitter Blake Binderup began the inning with a full-count double before left fielder Jake Duer advanced him to third with a left-center double. Crowl looked shaken with his subsequent four-pitch walk to third baseman Nico Partida, and continued to unravel as a wild pitch and right fielder Terrence Kiel II’s sacrifice fly plated a run each.
Down 4-0, Crowl surrendered another single to put runners on the corners with an out. Senior lefty Brody Roe inherited the situation and followed Crowl’s suit, beginning with hitting second baseman Travis Chestnut on an 0-2 pitch.
The inning’s second out came after that, but the Aggies struck a two-out rally with three consecutive doubles — and another hit by pitch with the bases loaded — to go ahead 10-0. Center fielder Caden Sorell (2-for-4, two RBI), Binderup (1-for-1, two runs and RBI) and Duer (2-for-4, RBI) had the two-base knocks, though Tech was spared after that.
Texas A&M’s two other runs came off Renfrow, though his outing was stout aside from a few pitches.
First was an up-the-middle fastball delivered to Chris Hacopian in the first inning, which the designated hitter crushed 424 feet to the MLB ballpark’s left-center seats. Tech’s ace has surrendered a home run in each of his first three appearances this season, but he remained composed after Friday’s. The Aggies were hitless following the homer until the fourth inning, when Sorell, Partida and Kiel knocked singles to plate Sorell.
Renfrow rebounded in the fifth, striking out three straight batters with no more than two balls in the count, though with 79 pitches and the coaching staff ramping him up week-by-week this year, it was his last frame.
Hoping that their Friday loss isn’t indicative of the gap between them and ranked SEC programs like A&M, the Hokies return to Globe Life Field on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET (FloSports) to play No. 4 Mississippi State. The Bulldogs, captained by former UVa coach Brian O’Connor, are 10-0 after beating Arizona State 8-4 on Friday.