Full Game Preview and Score Prediction for Virginia Tech vs. Cal Poly

For the first time since the 2022 season, Virginia Tech baseball is in a regional. The Hokies begin their stint in the Los Angeles Regional tonight at 8 p.m. ET with a first-round bout against Cal Poly, with Logan Eisenreich starting on the hill.

UCLA Regional Pitching Note—

It is NOT All-ACC Pitcher Brett Renfrow for VT in game 1 vs Cal poly. He didn’t go for the ACC Tournament either. Head Coach John Szefc said last week “he just wasn’t ready to pitch.” — per @HokiesAudio

Logan Eisenreich will start.
— Max Kelton (@alldaykelt) May 28, 2026

Eisenreich delivered his first quality start of the season two weeks ago against Clemson with six frames of seven-hit, one-run ball. Eisenreich delivered a career-high nine strikeouts against the Tigers. In the second round of the ACC Tournament against Notre Dame on May 20, he pitched for 4.2 frames, yielding five hits and only one run.

Game Notes

Virginia Tech's matchup against Cal Poly will be the first ever between the two programs. The Mustangs went 22-8 in league play. In non-conference play, Cal Poly split a four-game set with Washington State and sustained a four-game sweep at the hands of then-No. 25 USC. The Mustangs were also swept by Oregon State.

In the Big West Championship, the Mustangs emerged in a low-scoring pitcher's duel over UC San Diego with a 1-0 victory. In game two of the tournament, Cal Poly moved by top-seeded UC Santa Barbara 4-2 to earn another matchup with the Tritons. UC San Diego produced three crooked innings (four runs in second and seventh, three in eighth) to push past the Mustangs 12-2, forcing a winner-take-all showdown.

Cal Poly emerged victorious with a 4-3 victory, pulling ahead with a three-run fifth inning to earn the Big West's automatic bid, their second straight time doing so. The Mustangs' regional bid is the fifth in the program's history. Last year, they went to the Eugene Regional final and beat No. 1 Oregon 10-8 before falling to two-seed Arizona 14-0 to end their season.

Some neat notes and stats on Cal Poly, who @HokiesBaseball will open with on Friday in the 2026 Los Angeles Regional:

• Back-to-back Big West champions.
• They made a run to the 2025 Eugene Regional final last year and beat No. 1 Oregon.

🧵 (1/4)
— Evan Hughes (@EvanKHughes) May 29, 2026

Cal Poly's batting lineup is spearheaded by Ryan Tayman, a junior who transferred in after two seasons at Cal. This year, Tayman's totaled 16 home runs and a .355 clip at the dish, producing 35 extra-base hits. He also holds a 1.108 OPS (on-base plus slugging) percentage, though he's struck out 45 times. Four other Mustangs are hitting above .300 entering Friday's fray: Nate Castellon (.329), Alejandro Garza (.327), Cam Hoiland (.315) and Casey Murray Jr. (.307)

On the hill, the Mustangs will presumably go with Carson Turnquist. The 6-foot-5, 235-pound redshirt junior from Paso Robles, Calif., spent a year at Oklahoma before transferring to Cal Poly. This season, Turnquist has compiled a 3.50 earned run average, conceding 27 earned runs and five homers in 69.1 innings of work.

Turnquist's last start came against UC Santa Barbara May 22, where he tossed six frames of three-hit, two-run ball. Turnquist compiled nine strikeouts two weeks ago against Long Beach State and totaled 11 strikeouts against UC San Diego (April 18) and CSUN (April 25).

Cal Poly's other options as starters could be junior arm Griffin Naess, who was the Friday starter as a sophomore for the Mustangs, or freshman arm Corden Pettey. Entering Friday's tilt, the two are pitching with 4.24 and 4.60 ERAs respectively.

The Hokies, meanwhile, are making their 12th NCAA Regional appearance and second under current head coach John Szefc. Szefc, who arrived as Virginia Tech's head coach ahead of the 2018 season, has coached three Super Regional squads — Maryland in 2014 and 2015, then Virginia Tech in 2022.

The Hokies garnered one of the NCAA's 33 at-large bids for the tournament; Virginia Tech finished seventh in the ACC standings and went 15-15 in its 30 conference games. in the ACC Tournament, the Hokies set season-highs in hits (19), runs (17) and RBI (16) in a 17-10 victory over Notre Dame. Though Virginia Tech lost two days later to No. 2 North Carolina, the 10-4 defeat did little to offset the Hokies' regional hopes.

Projected as a three-seed by D1Baseball the week prior, Virginia Tech rose into the two-seed line, though that means the Hokies will presumably contest the top seed in the nation, UCLA, at some point in the L.A. Regional. Should Virginia Tech win tonight's clash against the Mustangs, the Bruins will presumably be up next on Saturday.

I think that the Hokies have what it takes to outlast Cal Poly, though the margin will be close.

Final Score Prediction: Virginia Tech 6, Cal Poly 4

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