This past weekend, the Hokies welcomed the 16th ranked Louisville Cardinals into Blacksburg for a three game weekend series. The Hokies were searching for their first series win against a D1Baseball ranked opponent since beating UVA in April of 2023.
Virginia Tech was able to do just that, taking down Louisville 2-1 in the series while out scoring them 24-18 in the aggregate. Let’s dive in to how the Hokies got it done for a massive series victory this weekend.
Game 1: Virginia Tech 5, Louisville 4
In the series opener, the Hokies gave the ball to Brett Renfrow, as per usual. Entering the game, Renfrow was among the top of ACC starters with a 2.63 ERA. The Hokies would need a big performance from him as they faced off against consensus top 100 MLB draft prospect, Patrick Forbes.
Well the Hokies got just that from Renfrow, who pitched seven innings without allowing an earned run and walking just one batter. He exited the game after failing to get an out in the eighth. The first to be called upon to relieve him was Andrew Sentlinger, who got through the eighth scoreless. Early on in the ninth, though, Sentlinger had some trouble.
He left the game and gave Preston Crowl a tough situation with two on. Crowl failed to get an out, giving up two hits and walking a batter. Cameron LeJeune relieved him and was given a save opportunity in a then 5-3 game with the bases loaded and one out. LeJeune got out of the sticky situation, and the Hokies won 5-4.
Hitting for the Hokies was going to be a struggle in this one, facing off against Forbes. But they found a way to get to him early on, as Sam Tackett blasted a two-run homer over the left field wall to make it 2-0. That gave the Hokies big time momentum in the game, and they held the 2-0 lead up until the sixth, where they put up three more runs, two of which came off the bat of Sam Tackett for another home run.
The final run of the game for the Hokies came from a Hudson Lutterman double that scored Garrett Michel. A couple other Hokies had some solid games as Clay Grady went 1-3 with a double and Ben Watson had a single that extended his hit streak to nine games.
As I previously touched on, Louisville started a hot commodity on the mound in Patrick Forbes.
Forbes, at points, was running his fastball up to 98 and 99 mph and blowing it by Hokies’ hitters. Something was off with him on Friday, though, giving up a season high five earned runs in seven innings before Louisville made its first call to the pen. Brandin Crawford gave Louisville a much, much needed scoreless inning before giving the ball to Ty Starke, who did much of the same for the Cardinals.
Louisville did not have a ton of trouble hitting Hokies pitching, the trouble for them came from hitting with runners in scoring position, where the Cardinals went 3-11, with just two of those hits resulting in an RBI. Louisville also had trouble getting the bats going at the bottom of the order as the 6, 7, 8, 9 spots went 2-18, while the top 5 combined for 10-21 and four walks.
I took a lot away from this game with the biggest takeaway surrounding Brett Renfrow. Early on in 2025, Renfrow has not been considered one of the ACC’s premier arms, with guys like Jamie Arnold, Patrick Forbes, and Dominic Fritton overshadowing him. A seven inning outing where he did not allow an earned run is the kind of outing that can get Renfrow the much deserved recognition to be placed among the premier arms in the ACC. I got the opportunity to talk to Renfrow post game, when asked about what was working for him in his outing, he has this to say.
“Everything, man. I was just really confident in every pitch and just went out there and did my thing trying to pitch against a good team,” Renfrow said.
Another takeaway has been one that I have mentioned a few times, and that is the emergence of outfielder Sam Tackett.
This year, it looked like the Hokies lacked the threat at the plate that a Gavin Cross, Jack Hurley, or Carson DeMartini would put in the lineup in years past. Sam Tackett, as a fifth year senior, has emerged as the big time bat that the Hokies offense desperately needed.
Game 2: Louisville 12, Virginia Tech 8
In the second game, the Hokies did not find the success on the mound that they have in weeks past from true freshman Jake Marciano. For the first time in his young career, he had trouble being able to establish himself on the mound against this Louisville offense. He threw 2.1 innings and gave up five earned runs, quickly putting the Hokies behind the eight ball. That was followed up by a combined two scoreless innings from Jacob Exum and Matheiu Curtis, which helped the Hokies bridge the gap to Grant Manning, who gave up three runs in two innings.
Following that, the Hokies had Preston Crowl and Josh Berzonski both come out of the bullpen to throw a combined 11 pitches. The Hokies then went to Luke Craytor, who stabilized a tough inning and gave the Hokies 1.2 scoreless innings. The Hokies, depleted in the bullpen, then pivoted to give some of the freshman arms a taste of ACC play. Chase Swift and Luke Jackman pitched the final inning, giving up a combined three earned runs.
At the dish, the Hokies did find more success than they did on Friday, scoring eight runs. In the first inning, the Hokies were unable to scratch any runs across, going into the second inning trailing 1-0. In the second, though, the Hokies were able to scratch a couple of runs across on a Garrett Michel home run that traveled a whopping 460 feet. In the third, Tackett blasted yet another home run, scoring Watson as well. In the sixth, Jared Davis hit a massive game tying home run to give the Hokies a ton of momentum as the two teams battled into the final third of the game. The following inning, the Hokies strung some hits together and gave themselves a 7-5 lead late in the game that they would unfortunately be unable to hold on to. The ninth allowed the Hokies to bring across an ineffective run.
Louisville starter Jack Brown only gave them 2.1 innings before Justin West relieved him, going 2.2 innings. The two combined to give the Hokies five runs in the first five innings.
Looking to even the series, Louisville emptied their bullpen, throwing Ethan Eberle first, who gave them a scoreless inning before handing the ball to Brennyn Cutts. He got two outs, but walked two. The ball was then given to a lefty, Wyatt Danilowicz, who struck out Michel to end the inning. Tucker Biven was given the ball with a six out save opportunity, and while things got a bit dicey for him, he did get it.
For Louisville, the top six of the order was very effective again, getting on base 13 combined times. The top of the order for Louisville is also littered with speed, so among those 13 on base opportunities, that led to six stolen bases. Those stolen bags are ultimately what made the difference for the Cardinals to knot up the series at one a piece.
Takeaways from this game are simple, the Hokies have a strong, but not deep bullpen. In games against tough opponents like this, the Hokies will absolutely need to have their starter go deeper into games or have a long outing in relief to be able to win these games. The Hokies did not have that in this one, and ultimately, that contributed to the loss
Game 3: Virginia Tech 11, Louisville 4
With the first two games being split, the third game was set up for a rubber match between the Hokies and the Cardinals.
For the Hokies, Logan Eisenreich got the ball for his second consecutive Sunday start. Eisenreich, recovering from an injury that caused him to miss three weeks, is still working on getting stretched out and being able to go longer into his outings as he comes off of his injury. He gave the Hokies 1.1 scoreless innings before handing the ball to Andrew Sentlinger.
Sentlinger had a career outing, giving the Hokies 4.2 strong innings where he was credited with just one earned run through his outing. Once his outing was said and done, the Hokies needed three more innings, and Cameron LeJeune was able to get through those three. He did allow three earned runs though during his outing.
At the bat for the Hokies, Jared Davis had yet another fantastic day, where he went 3-4 and hit a leadoff home run on the second pitch of the day to set the tone early for the Hokies. Clay Grady also had a strong day, going 3-3 with a walk and two RBIs. Henry Cooke also had his second multi-hit day of the weekend, where he went 2-4 with a walk and an RBI.
Along with those days, an anomaly happened in this one, where Sam Tackett went 1-2 with four walks, including three intentional walks. After the game, one of Tackett’s teammates had this to say about Tackett’s intentional walks.
“That was very cool. Only thing I saw about that was, that’s like Barry Bonds. He had to feel like Barry Bonds by the end,” Jared Davis said.
John Szefc also said that he would have done the same thing for a guy like Tackett.
Pitching wise for Louisville, they started Peter Michael, who was just completely ineffective against the Hokies bats on Sunday. He pitched one (+) inning and gave up three hits, three walks, and six earned runs. Early on, Louisville tried to stay in the game and throw it’s big time arms, but they were likewise not very effective in their 11-4 loss.
For Louisville, they were unable to put up any runs until the 7th inning, where they put up a three spot. They followed that up with a solo home run in the 8th from Tague Davis, but ultimately all of that was well short of what they needed to do to have a chance against the Hokies.
My biggest takeaway from this game surrounds Sam Tackett. To be intentionally walked three times is not something that you see often in baseball.
Bradley Smart of D1Baseball pointed something out on X: only nine times in 2024 did a player get intentionally walked three times, four of those nine belonging to Jac Caglianone of Florida, who is now the Kansas City Royals’ top prospect and is slated to make a potential MLB debut this season. Sam Tackett is in the midst of what is on pace to be a historical season for any college baseball player.
