After the Virginia Tech baseball team was bounced from the NCAA Tournament on the last weekend in May in the Los Angeles Regional by host UCLA, it was going to be a big month for the future of the Hokies program for 2027 and beyond.
Virginia Tech was on the verge of losing some of its top pitchers to the MLB Draft, as well as the possibility of some players hitting the portal. As far as retention goes, head coach John Szefc and his staff got key players in their everyday lineup to return for next season. That includes star middle infielder Ethan Ball, who burst onto the scene in 2026 as a freshman.
However, there was a lot of turnover with the pitching staff after Brent Renfrow was all but guaranteed to get drafted in this past weekend's MLB Draft, and that was the case when the Minnesota Twins picked him with the 74th overall pick on Saturday.
On Sunday, the Hokies had pitchers Luke Craytor went to the Chicago White Sox, Griffin Stieg went to the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Madden Clement, who is currently in the NCAA Transfer Portal, went to the Kansas City Royals. You can add two new transfers to the draft list.
2 Virginia Tech baseball transfer pitchers selected in 2026 MLB Draft
Szefc had two players who committed to the Hokies in the portal picked on Sunday. USC Upstate transfer Chris Torres was picked by the Seattle Mariners, 490th overall, as was Dallas Baptist transfer Aiden VanDeHatert, who was picked 604th and in the 20th round by the Boston Red Sox.
It remains to be seen what the duo decides to do. VanDeHatert has two years of eligibility remaining, while Torres has one year remaining. It was not surprising to see some of the Hokies' names called this past weekend in the draft.
Decisions are clear for some of the players picked earlier in the draft, ahead of VanDeHatert and Torres, but it seems the decisions are easy for the final names called. However, sometimes money and opportunity talk.
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