Projected Rotation for Virginia Tech in NCAA Baseball Regional Tournament

What will Virginia Tech's pitching rotation look like this weekend in the Los Angeles Regional?

Blacksburg, VA — Brett Renfrow delivers a pitch in game 1 vs Clemson, 2026. | Virginia Tech Athletic

With NCAA Baseball Tournament regionals just a few short days away, nobody knows how any given team is going to approach a regional when it comes to their starting pitching rotation.

Going chalk can put you in a bad spot later in the regional, but going off script and saving an ace for a bigger game can put the team in jeopardy early on if they lose the opening game.

With that being said, it's unknown how Virginia Tech plans to approach this upcoming regional.

Pitching plan for the weekend

In 2022, the Hokies waited to use Drue Hackenberg until the second game — the reason that doesn't point in any direction is that he was the regular Saturday starter, despite being the team's ace throughout the season.

I have my own projections, so let's dive in to what those look like.

In the opening game, I expect the Hokies to go with a less experienced arm like Logan Eisenreich or Ethan Grim. Typically, this would be a risky move, but with UCLA looming — should the Hokies match up with them in game 2 — Brett Renfrow gives the Hokies the best chance of pulling off the upset, putting pitching on the most equal playing field possible.

With Eisenreich or Grim, I expect the Hokies to use both in one game, looking to combine the two for somewhere between six and seven innings of work before turning to a high-leverage bullpen arm — likely Preston Crowl or Chase Swift.

Should the Hokies win the opening game against Cal Poly, they will almost certainly face off against UCLA, where Brett Renfrow would absolutely be getting the start, looking to continue his recent dominance and push the Hokies past UCLA, giving them the head up going into the later portions of the regional.

The Hokies are only guaranteed two games, though, so the rotation could very possibly just end right here.

If they get to a third game, I expect Griffin Stieg to be the name called for the start. He's had his struggles as of late, giving up 22 runs in his last 12 innings of work, dating back to the Hokies' previous trip over to the west coast.

Three games are more than possible, four is where things start to get unlikely, but not impossible. The Hokies are the two seed, after all.

That fourth starter is very up in the air. The Hokies could look to Aiden Robertson, who has post-season starting experience at the JUCO level as recently as last season. They could also look to Brendan Yagesh, who started three ACC games earlier this season. Preston Crowl is somebody who has proven capable of long relief outings. Chase Swift and Madden Clement both have ample midweek starting experience as well.

There's no telling where the Hokies would go for a potentially fourth or fifth game with a variety of potential avenues.

We will have more as the regional unfolds.