We’ve always talked about baseball being something of the long game played to beat averages. This season, the Hokies are searching for something that gets them far enough above .500 to be relevant. The post 2025 season was a bit difficult for the Hokies. Long time pitching and assistant coach Ryan Fecteau was replaced by Doug Willey in hopes of a full rebuild of the pitching program in Blacksburg. So far, the move has not accelerated out of the starting blocks as fast as was hoped. The Hokies are still
bouncing around .500 in both overall record and ACC play.
It looks like it’s going to take some time for Coach Willey to get the bull pen moving in a more positive direction. Hokie pitching is still struggling this season, and the staff is still looking for winning consistency.
The Record
Currently the Hokies stand at a pinch above .500 at 12-11 overall. It’s important to remember that college baseball is salted with many non-conference opponents throughout the season, so that record counts greatly for post season consideration. Their ACC Record sits just below .500 at 4-5 (conference play hasn’t picked up to full speed, yet). They have split each of their ACC series games with only one series win against Duke that one ending in a thrilling 10 inning walk-off at home.
The Pitching is Struggling
The scores are almost immediately indicative of something going on. The team, for the most part, is scoring on offense. Yes, this is college baseball with “aluminum/composite” bats and big swinging position players with DH positions filled… BUT the problem is, at some point, you have to get the ball across the plate without the batter making clean contact. The 2026 Hokie pitching staff is having serious consistency problems and that can be from pitcher to pitcher within games.
The Hokies have also fallen into the cave of not having a trio of reliable quality starters. Currently, out of 17 pitchers who have taken to the mound over 23 games, 8 have started. Though veteran starters Brett Renfrow and Griffin Stieg are missing bats at an acceptable rate, they are also getting clocked at too high a number to balance that off. New starter Ethan Grim has been following the same pattern, a good number of strikeouts paired up with too many walks (which also means too many full counts and too many pitches thrown). At this point of the season if the bullpen has a claim on double digits for innings pitched, the team is showing signs of struggle finding consistently good arms off of the mound.
Offense Isn’t as Much of a Power Problem as Consistency
The Hokie 2026 offense includes some newer names in the mix, but the Hokies returned quite a few position players this season. It doesn’t help that batting averages have only bumped into with high .200s for a few players and the team only has Ethan Ball and Sam Grube up above the .300 mark. In college ball that puts your offense, especially in clutch situations, behind the power curve. Willie Hurt seems to be making a run at .364, but he’s not a starter and has only accumulated 11 at-bats so that’s why he’s below the normal evaluation curve. Other players are scattered around the middle of the .200s and a few are flirting with the Mendoza line.
Hudson Lutterman at .288 is leading the team with 5 home runs, but no one is dominating that number at this point. We are seeing good production of doubles, but the Hammerin’ Hokies really haven’t blossomed this season.
Regardless of the power, the clutch consistency is still a struggle, though Tech did manage to walk Duke off in the 10th of game 3 of the series to take it, the team is still hitting late inning dry spells when they really need to score runs to pass, or for insurance.
The combination of struggling pitching and inconsistent offense was illustrated by the loss to East Tennessee State on Tuesday in their house (that home/home series split 1-1). Tech’s offense barely managed to scratch out four runs over their 9 innings. Sometimes, in baseball, 4 is enough to win quite a few games, though… IF your pitching keeps the opposition from crossing the plate.
Picking It Up for Full Coverage by Mid April
My apologies to the baseball fans that normally read GC, it’s been an adventure over the last few months having my knees replaced and going through some uncomfortable but necessary rehab. I have not been able to get to the ballpark since the start of the season. Hopefully by mid-April I will be able to get to the press box with the cameras for some live coverage and pictures and keep it up for the remainder of the season.
For now, both yours truly and the Hokies have some rehab and recovery work to do.
Stanford Comes to Town this Weekend
It’s going to be a wet Friday start at 1:00 today, but Stanford has made the trip from the Bay Area of California to the venerable mountains of Southwest Virginia to take on the Hokies for a really important ACC Series. Tech really needs to win this one to get ahead of the .500 curve in the conference, and get some momentum going for the critical middle of the season.
