Virginia Tech vs Texas A&M Preview & Prediction

The Hokies start the weekend with a game against Texas A&M. The Aggies are perfect so far, sitting 8-0, but they have shown vulnerability, narrowly beating Penn last weekend. It took them two walk-off hits, one of which was in the 11th inning.

Meanwhile, the Hokies sit 7-1 on the season with their sole loss coming to Rutgers in the first of a three game series. They stormed back to win game two and three, along with piling a midweek win over James Madison to give themselves a three game winning streak.

A&M will presumably start Shane Sdao, who is one of the nation's top arms.

Last season, he primarily came out of the Aggies bullpen; he went for 48.2 innings and produced 2.96 ERA with 55 strikeouts and just nine walks, one of the top K/BB rates in the country. In two starts this season, Sdao has thrown 12.1 innings, where he's allowed a 2.92 ERA with 12 strikeouts and zero walks.

Virginia Tech will be starting Brett Renfrow, who has had a rather slow start to the 2026 campaign. Over two starts, Renfrow has thrown five innings with nine strikeouts and zero walks, but he's surrendered two homers that have combined for three runs. He has a 5.40 ERA on the season with a .318 batting average against.

The Hokies expect — and need — the veteran righty to have a strong start on the mound if they want to win this game.

Behind Renfrow, you can expect Preston Crowl to be the first call out of the bullpen. He has been the first call each Friday to start the season, where he has thrown eight innings with a 6.75 ERA, striking out 11 batters. With two appearances, his numbers are slightly inflated from a poor outing against Rutgers, where he allowed six runs in three innings.

Against William & Mary, Crowl permitted just three baserunners in five innings, striking out seven behind Renfrow.

Which version of that will Preston Crowl be on the season? It's early and hard to tell, but if he throws tonight, I expect that the Hokies will find out a lot about their top bullpen arm.

In a perfect scenario, the Hokies make it through the weekend with just those two, but it's likely that they'll need a third pitcher to close the game, should they have the lead. I would expect Luke Craytor, Peyton Smith or Brendan Yagesh to be that third pitcher, should they opt to go in that direction.

So far on the season, Texas A&M's top hitters are Terrence Kiel and Wesley Jordan, who are both hitting north of .470. Kiel does only have two extra base hits, so his SLG is a strong .556, but it's less than you'd expect with his .481 average.

Wesley Jordan is a different story. Hitting .474 on the season, Jordan has three doubles and two home runs, bringing his slugging number to .947. He also walks a good bit, working eight walks and bringing his on base percentage to .655.

Texas A&M's most effective hitter, though, is Caden Sorrell, who has hit .429 on the seasn with a .964 SLG along with 16 RBI, which is far and away the team lead, along with being tied for 17th in the nation.

For Virginia Tech, offense has come by committee rather than by superstar. Sam Grube is hitting .452 on the season, though. He leads the team in average, slugging percentage, doubles and is tied for the home run and RBI lead.

True freshman Ethan Ball has had a stellar start as well, slashing .394 with two homers and eight RBI, which are both tied with Sam Grube for the team lead.