Niagara RHP Nate Bennett Commits To Virginia Tech
John Szefc and Virginia Tech baseball have added their third transfer portal commitment, with Niagara RHP Nate Bennett announcing his commitment earlier this afternoon.
Committed. @HokiesBaseball pic.twitter.com/HlFzxL2bev
— Nate Bennett (@natebennett126) June 18, 2026
After spending his first two college seasons at Niagara, Bennett posted a 6.75 ERA in 97.1 career innings, but really lept forward as a sophomore, posting a 4.94 ERA in 51 innings of work, where he struck out a team-high 59 batters and limited walks to just 3.4/9 innings. He brings 25 career appearances — 19 of which are starts. He averages nearly four innings per appearance.
Bennett features a three-pitch mix that will likely be added to in the offseason. He sports a low-90s fastball that has been able to get up to 95mph, along with a low-80s slider and a splitter that sits in the mid-70s.
His strongest feature is his ability to limit extra-base hits. Facing 227 batters across the 2025 season, he allowed just nine. He has allowed an opponent slash line of .275/.350/.355.
Bennett was rather consistent the entire season aside from a two-game stretch where he surrendered 15 earned runs in just 5.1 innings of work. When looking at his full body of work with a 4.94 ERA, it isn't the most impressive. When looking outside of those two games, he has tossed 45.2 innings with an ERA of 2.56 with 53 strikeouts and 16 walks, allowing just 40 hits.
Those numbers are good for an elite WHIP as well, sitting at 1.23 in those selected games. It does rise to 1.45 over his full body of work.
Virginia Tech is continuing to put together a pitching staff via the portal after losing three impact bullpen arms to the portal and another three to eligibility. With that, the Hokies lose two of their three regular weekend starters in Griffin Stieg and Brett Renfrow. Based on the approach so far, it looks like the Hokies are focusing on bringing in lower-level arms with starting experience and letting them battle it out for the third starting position behind Logan Eisenreich and Ethan Grim, who are both going to be returning.
With the development that Doug Willey has been able to provide, Nate Bennett is a very high upside and high floor commitment that I expect to make a large impact at Virginia Tech, whether that be as a starter or out of the bullpen.
We will have more transfer portal coverage as the period continues.
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Joshua Poslusny - who goes by Poz - is a Radford University sophomore in the School of Communication. He graduated from Ocean Springs High School in Mississippi in 2024. He has previously done work for The Tech Lunch Pail, Tech Sideline, and Sons of Saturday, among others. He specializes in baseball coverage, which he has been doing for the last year. He also has experience covering football, basketball, and softball.