Three Takeaways From Virginia Tech Baseball’s Series Win Vs Cal

Berkley, CA — Virginia Tech won their third consecutive ACC series and have won 9 of their last 12 matchups on the diamond. Despite dropping game three in 9-4 fashion, the Hokies needed this series win and got it, putting themselves firmly on the bubble this week.

There’s plenty of takeaways from the series, so here’s my top three.

No. 1: The Hokies are peaking at the right time

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a column on what the Hokies would need to do to put themselves in position on the bubble, and they have followed that blueprint to a tee.

I stated that the Hokies would need a 15-4 run going down the stretch, and they’re within striking distance, needing to go 6-1 from here on out with four games against non-conference opponents.

They couldn’t afford another series loss in conference, and they haven’t taken one.

With that run, the Hokies — who sat outside of the top 45 — have moved themselves up to 36th in RPI — a firm bubble position — with a three big ACC games remaining and four must-win non-conference games.

No. 2: Brett Renfrow has found it

What is ‘it’ exactly? Well, he’s the only one that knows.

Over Brett Renfrow’s first two starts in the month of April against Miami and Boston College, he surrendered 12 runs in 11 innings, striking out 10 batters and hurling over 200 pitches in the short time span.

Since then, he’s arguably been the best pitcher in the conference. In his recent three starts, Renfrow has allowed the following statline:

21.0 IP
3 ER
10 H
6 BB
27 K

Those numbers bring an ERA of 1.29 and a K/9 of 11.57.

For those of you who are familiar with the K%-BB% stat, Renfrow’s is sitting at 25.9%. For context, Tarik Skubal — who won the AL Cy Young last year — had a rate of 27.8%.

Brett Renfrow getting back to those strong, consistent starts that we’ve seen in the past is something that Virginia Tech desperately needed from it’s ace, and it will be crucial for the Hokies down the stretch.

No. 3: The Bullpen has been much more consistent

Earlier this season, the Virginia Tech bullpen had a huge issue with blowing leads and losing games.

Against Cal, the Virginia Tech bullpen surrendered just a pair of runs in 10 innings of work.

The highlight of the bullpen as of late has been Chase Swift, who hasn’t given up a run since March 3rd against Marshall. He’s made nine appearances in that time and has posted the following stat-line:

13.1 IP
0 ER
4 H
6 BB
18 K

Much like with Renfrow, consistency from the Virginia Tech bullpen is going to be key down the stretch, and the Hokies are headed in the right direction.