Elon LHP Transfer Mike Staiano Commits To Virginia Tech

John Szefc and Virginia Tech have added former Elon and Manhattan LHP Mike Staiano to their transfer portal class, marking the fourth total commit and third pitcher to commit to the Hokies during this portal cycle.

Incredibly grateful for this opportunity @HokiesBaseball pic.twitter.com/54UGy5VSrb
— Mike Staiano (@mikestaiano11) June 22, 2026

Appearing in 51 career games with 94.2 career innings under his belt, Staiano boasts a 5.61 ERA with over 100 career strikeouts to 45 walks. In 2026, Staiano had his best career season, posting a 4.78 ERA in 33.1 innings with the Phoenix, striking out nearly 23% of batters that he faced with just a 9.2% walk rate.

Staiano sports a four-pitch mix, with a fastball that sits in the high-80s to low-90s, along with a cutter in the mid-80s, a changeup in the low-80s and a looping curveball that sits in the mid-70s range with a plethora of vertical bite.

This season, he only saw one outing against a power conference opponent, throwing 1.1 scoreless innings against Wake Forest, where he struck out a pair of batters and gave up just one hit. He also had a scoreless outing against Wake Forest in 2025. That year, he faced four power conference programs along with ECU twice, where he did struggle, throwing 6.2 innings, allowing seven runs and striking out four batters.

While Stiano has had a tendency to allow hits, he has done a very good job at limiting extra bases, allowing just a .366 slugging percentage this season with a .733 OPS. His overall opponent slash line this past season was .290/.367/.366.

Joining Chris Torres and Nate Bennett as pitchers from the portal, Staiano is the only one out of the group that doesn't have a solid amount of starting experience, effectively confirming that he is going to be a bullpen arm for the Hokies, which was a key need going into the offseason after the departures of Madden Clement, Preston Crowl and Chase Swift, who were among the team's top bullpen arms this past season.

With that commitment, the Hokies now have a full 34-man roster, but with 10 incoming freshmen and four incoming JUCO transfers, it's likely that around four of those guys don't make the spring roster, so I think the Hokies still have some work to do in the portal, specifically when it comes to adding bullpen arms.

The team should have around 3-5 more takes in this transfer cycle.

We will have you covered here as the transfer portal continues to unfold.

Add us as a preferred source on Google