Brett Renfrow’s ACC Pitcher of the Week performance last weekend carried into this Friday’s game against Cal, when Virginia Tech baseball thumped the Golden Bears 9-1 in the program’s first-ever trip to Stu Gordon Stadium in Berkeley, Calif.
The Hokies’ ace pitched the first six of his seven innings scoreless, making for 14 consecutive no-run frames, including last weekend’s shutout against NC State. With Cal’s Oliver de la Torre on the other side — who entered Friday’s game top 15 in the ACC in ERA (3.61) — the game could’ve easily been a low-scoring pitcher’s duel.
Instead, the Hokies (24-20, 12-13 ACC) put together 16 hits, their most in a nine-inning ACC game this season, for their fourth straight series-opening win. Nine of those hits came off de la Torre for the most he has allowed in his career, and all six of Tech’s players who hit registered multiple.
Henry Cooke recorded the team’s fourth four-hit game of the year (4-for-5) while Ethan Ball (2-for-5) broke a scoreless first two innings with a two-run homer in the third. That was all Tech needed to win, but Hudson Lutterman (3-for-5) conjured a Little League home run on de la Torre’s very next pitch.
Nick Locurto (2-for-5) barreled a two-run home run in the ninth, Sam Grube (3-for-4) continued to feast off righties and Owen Petrich (2-for-4) registered his fourth mult-hit ACC game in his last 10 tries.
The Golden Bears (23-22, 7-15) entered Friday’s game with wins in six of their last nine ACC games, but the Hokies were hot, too, now with wins in eight of their last 10. They’re one victory removed from being .500 in conference play for the first time this year.
For the seventh straight game, Tech got on the board first. Ball followed Cooke’s third-inning single with the fourth home run in his last five games. Lutterman took de la Torre’s next pitch into left field, officially for a double, but errors by Cal left fielder Carl Schmidt and first baseman Daniel Murillo resulted in a Little League home run. Tech went up 3-0 after three innings while quickly working de la Torre for 66 pitches.
The junior settled in after that, though, pitching three straight scoreless frames, even as he allowed leadoff hits in two of them. Petrich singled to start the fourth and advanced to third before Ethan Gibson grounded into an inning-ending double play. Gibson’s 14-game hitting streak ended against Cal’s six-arm pitching attack, all but one of whom were right-handed.
As de la Torre took the losing decision, Renfrow took the win to progress to 4-4 after starting the year 1-4. He retired the Golden Bears in four batters in the first, second and third innings, primarily using his fastball and curveball.
However, strikeouts didn’t start pouring in until he allowed a Schmidt single and Ethan Kodama walk in the fourth inning, putting two on with an out. Renfrow escaped the trouble with full-count punchouts to shortstop Brady Errecart and right fielder Kalen Applefield.
That began a streak of nine retired batters, including three more strikeouts. Erracart ended the run with a one-out single in the seventh inning, and he eventually served as Cal’s lone run after second baseman Taichi Nakao’s RBI single shot into left field.
Renfrow’s final batter was his next one: catcher Hideki Prather, whom he struck out. The junior righty allowed just four hits while collecting nine strikeouts across a career high 112 pitches.
Chase Swift followed with what would’ve likely been his third close in Tech’s last four ACC games — he pitched a three-up, three-down eighth inning — but the Hokies added six insurance runs in the final three frames. As a result, they used Aiden Robertson in the ninth, who kept Cal off the board despite allowing a Kodama walk and Errecart single.
The insurance offense began in the top of the seventh, when Ball singled in Grube, who also singled off de la Torre replacement Jett Wright. Grube struck again the next inning off right-hander Cade Colombra, ripping an RBI single into left field. The play actually scored two runs as Grube got himself into a pickle, which distracted Cal from Pete Daniel’s run home. The hit itself only scored Petrich, who initially walked, so Grube was credited with one RBI.
Righty JJ Hollis started the ninth for Cal and allowed a double to Cooke, RBI single to Lutterman and a two-run bomb to Locurto, producing the final 9-1 score.
The Hokies’ series-opening win over Cal marked their first game in California since the 2000 Fullerton Regional. In Saturday’s Game 2 (6 p.m. ET, ACCNX), the Golden Bears are expected to start right-hander Gavin Eddy (3.29 ERA), who is coming off eight innings of three-run ball at Miami.
Tech opted to save Griffin Stieg for Sunday after winning last Friday, but he is an option in Game 2, as are Logan Eisenreich and Ethan Grim.
Box Score: Virginia Tech 9, Cal 1