Three Takeaways From Virginia Tech's Series Sweep vs. William & Mary

Virginia Tech baseball had a strong start to the season with a three-game series sweep against William & Mary, moving to 3-0 in 2026.

𝙍𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙙 ... 𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙡𝙪𝙚 ❤️

We swept the Tribe ... beat 'em, 8-2#Hokies 🦃⚾️ pic.twitter.com/D3EbXbu61d
— Virginia Tech Baseball (@HokiesBaseball) February 15, 2026

The sweep was a good look on the team for the most part, including a ton of fantastic performances at the plate and on the mound.

Let's dive into my top three takeaways:

No. 1: Virginia Tech has elite pitching.

Something that was expected of this team all offseason was that it would have a great pitching staff. Over the three-game series against the Tribe, the team surrendered a 3.67 ERA with a 1.11 WHIP. In addition, the staff struck out 36 batters in 27 innings, putting up an average of 12 K/9.

Here is a compiled list of some of the best performances on the mound from the weekend.

Preston Crowl: 5.0 IP, 7 K, 0 BB, 3 H, 0 ER
Peyton Smith: 1.0 IP, 3 K, 0 BB, 0 H, 0 ER
Ethan Grim: 4.0 IP, 6 K, 3 BB, 3 H, 1 ER
Griffin Stieg: 4.2 IP, 4 K, 1 BB, 3 H, 2 ER
Chase Swift: 2.0 IP, 5 K, 0 BB, 0 H, 0 ER
Ben Weber: 3.0 IP, 1 K, 0 BB, 1 H, 0 ER

Those are just six of the best performances, and that list doesn't include Brett Renfrow, who has established himself as an elite pitcher in the ACC.

That represents 19.2 innings of elite pitching over a single weekend, with multiple of Virginia Tech's top expected contributors on the mound not having elite starts to their seasons.

The list also doesn't include Luke Craytor, Brendan Yagesh, Aiden Robertson, Logan Eisenreich or Josh Berzonski, who are all expected to be key contributors. None of them had particularly awful outings, though there's undoubtedly room to grow throughout the season.

No. 2: Virginia Tech has an elite bat in Ethan Ball.

As it stands on the season, Ethan Ball leads all qualified hitters on the team in batting average, slashing .417/.500/.417. While he hit only singles in the first weekend of the season, he was a hot commodity and a known power bat coming out of high school.

Ball's big concern about his chances to play early was about his contact. Early in the season, he has proven that contact issues will not be an issue early in his career. Striking out three times in 14 appearances isn't ideal, but it's around average and not considered a major problem for a guy with the power of Ethan Ball.

Clay Grady is out for around three weeks with a broken wrist; as a result, Ball has stepped in and performed. It will be interesting to see where the staff decides to slot in the mix of Ball, Daniel and Grady when they are healthy.

No. 3: Offense isn't a concern... yet.

Virginia Tech's offense — specifically, its situational hitting — did not impress in the opening weekend. What the numbers suggest, though, is that William & Mary wasn't throwing hittable pitches. Virginia Tech took advantage of that, walking 34 times, giving the Hokies a total OBP of .467. That's an elite number for a single player — let alone an entire team.

Virginia Tech got antsy to get hits and would swing outside of the zone, which led to a good amount of outs. William & Mary came into Blacksburg looking to cause discomfort, and did just that on the mound.

Even with the .269 batting average, Virginia Tech scratched accross 25 runs and stole four bases on five attempts.

Sam Gates, Henry Cooke, Treyson Hughes and Anderson French all got off to slow starts in seasons where they are expected to be big time bats for the Hokies. The three combined to hit .133, and that isn't something that I see being sustained.

No. 1: Virginia Tech has elite pitching.

No. 2: Virginia Tech has an elite bat in Ethan Ball.

No. 3: Offense isn't a concern... yet.

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