When Brett Renfrow walked off the mound on Thursday, he was equal parts emotional and steadfast.
On one hand, it was almost certainly his final appearance at English Field as a draft-eligible junior. He stepped off the same rubber he toed in his first ACC game against Notre Dame on March 8, 2024, when he teased one of the greatest careers in Virginia Tech baseball history with two earned runs allowed over eight innings.
Over two years later, he was mobbed by players in the only collegiate jersey he had ever worn, then took a seat in the same dugout he always had.
“It means a lot being out there competing with the guys one last time at home,” Renfrow said. “This place has been great to me. It’s stuck with me and believed in me since I was a kid.”
“That’s the face of your program,” Hokies head coach John Szefc said. “He pitched two summers for Team USA. … He’s a Virginia guy, and in this day and age of the transfer portal, he probably could have gone someplace else, but chose to stay.”
On the other hand, Renfrow’s career is not over — it’s not yet time for reflection, partly because he has willed it that way.
His 7 ⅓ inning, one-run start against Clemson led to a 5-1 series-opening win for the Hokies, putting them a game away from finishing the regular season with the sort of résumé the NCAA Tournament committee tends to send to a regional.
His last 22 ⅓ ACC innings have featured just two earned runs allowed, 32 strikeouts and three winning decisions. The Manassas native was once 1-4 this season. He is now 5-4 with pitching wins in each of the Hokies’ three consecutive series wins, and he added another victory Thursday to put them in position for a fourth straight.
“Our team is going to more or less play as he pitches,” Szefc said. “And that’s exactly what happened. …
He’s pitching his best college baseball that he has in three years on a consistent basis.”
Renfrow’s eyes are certainly pointed at what could be on the horizon for Tech (28-22, 14-14 ACC), but they were tinted red after Thursday’s game. Maybe it was the sub-50-degree chill, but that and his sniffling said he couldn’t help but absorb that he would never pitch in Blacksburg again. His face said more than his words, but here are those anyway:
“We’re not done yet, so it doesn’t really feel like it’s over, but it’s just fun being able to be here for three years,” Renfrow said. “I love this place, and I love being able to compete every weekend. You never know when it’s your last.”
Renfrow’s final home appearance couldn’t have started much better. To set the scene, Clemson (30-24, 9-19) second baseman Jarren Purify is one of the ACC’s most dynamic batters, entering with a 1.277 OPS in the month of May.
Tech’s ace struck him out on three pitches, throwing two foul balls before a strike looking. Tigers catcher Jacob Jarrell has a .308 average this month, and he struck out on three pitches two at-bats later for a three-up, three-down first inning that extended to six straight outs by the end of the second. Purify ended up being two of Renfrow’s five punchouts.
“I know my stuff is good enough to beat everyone,” Renfrow said.
On the other side, the Hokies’ offense turned in four hits in the first inning but left with just one run. Sam Grube knocked a leadoff single, followed by Ethan Gibson’s ground-rule double that put two runners in scoring position for Henry Cooke. The senior catcher extended his hitting streak to nine games with an RBI single up the middle that comfortably scored Grube before Ethan Gibson was tagged out at home.
Szefc challenged immediately, but to no avail. His team left the inning with one run despite a Nick Locurto infield single.
After that, the Hokies’ offense stalled against Clemson starter Dane Moehler in the second inning and right-hander Danny Nelson, who held them hitless from the third through fifth. Luckily for Tech, though, Renfrow didn’t allow a run until the seventh.
“It’s easy to have a lot of confidence when that's your guy on Friday nights,” Hokies shortstop Pete Daniel said.
Clemson put a runner on second in the third and fourth innings, but Renfrow left both stranded. He didn’t record a single strikeout from the fourth through sixth innings, but Clemson failed to put a runner on third anyway.
Before a Tyler Lichtenberger RBI single finally gave Clemson its lone run in the seventh, the Hokies put up a four-spot in the sixth.
After Sam Gates’ full-count walk, Daniel struck Nelson’s first and only hit allowed deep to center field for an RBI triple. An errant throw to third nearly got him home, but he was held there as Hudson Lutterman came to the plate.
Lutterman has not played since twisting his ankle before May 6’s game at Liberty. He was off a boot and crutches pregame for the first time since then on Thursday, but he was not in the starting lineup.
But he pinch-hit for Willie Hurt as Clemson pivoted from Nelson to lefty Brendon Bennett. Szefc said he knew Lutterman’s fastball-hitting ability would come through in that spot, and it did. He skied a ground-rule RBI double to left-center, which went over the head of a Clemson outfield playing bizarrely high. With the Hokies up 3-0, Owen Petrich took Bennett’s next pitch 388 feet over the left-field wall to make it 5-0.
“Hitting is contagious, anybody will tell you that,” Daniel said. “And obviously momentum is momentum, so anytime we can string hits together, it’s huge. Getting a big inning like that usually wins you a lot of ball games.”
Tech didn’t hit off Bennett for the rest of the game, but Renfrow stranded a runner on second in the seventh inning before grabbing the first out of the eighth. Preston Crowl inherited a four-pitch walk — that ended Renfrow’s outing — but put the next five Clemson batters down in order (counting a Jarrell fielder’s choice).
The Hokies and Clemson return to English Field for a 3 p.m. ET Game 2 on Friday (ACCNX). If Tech takes one of the next two, an NCAA Tournament bid is likely in the cards.
There aren’t many people who that would mean more to than Renfrow, who has never pitched beyond the ACC Tournament and is much of the reason Tech is in position for the NCAAs.
“It would be a shame if he never got to pitch in the playoffs,” Daniel said. “You want the best arms in the country in the tournament, and he really is one of them.”
How bad does Renfrow want to take the mound in a regional?
“Very, very badly,” he said.
But on Thursday, even if only for a moment, it was about Renfrow, English Field and everything they’ve given one another across three seasons that neither will forget.
“It was fun,” Renfrow said. “Every single day.”
Box Score: Virginia Tech 5, Clemson 1