Virginia Tech junior right-hander Brett Renfrow was named Atlantic Coast Conference Pitcher of the Week during the conference’s weekly awards presentation on April 27.
Renfrow earned this recognition after delivering eight shutout innings against NC State on April 24. He held one of the top-30 NCAA Division I offenses to only three hits, matching their lowest output of the season. Renfrow retired 24 out of 29 batters and struck out nine for the second consecutive start, never allowing a runner past second base.
Renfrow threw 76 strikes out of his 108 pitches, achieving a strike percentage of over seventy percent. He faced only three three-ball counts, converting one into a strikeout. After being given a three-run lead by his teammates in the first three innings, he recorded twelve straight outs from late in the fourth inning through most of the eighth inning.
He left just short of completing Virginia Tech’s first complete game shutout against an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent since Joe Parsons did so in 2011. Left-hander Chase Swift closed out NC State in order to secure Renfrow’s third win this season. Together, they produced Virginia Tech’s second combined shutout within six games and its first against an ACC team since April last year.
In his last six appearances—all against ACC opponents—Renfrow has posted a record of three wins and one loss with an earned run average (ERA) of 3.86 and a walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP) rate of 1.04. He has averaged more than eleven strikeouts per nine innings and exceeded nine strikeouts in each quality start during that stretch, including twelve strikeouts versus Stanford on March 28.
Currently, Renfrow is tied for sixth among all ACC pitchers for strikeout-to-walk ratio at just over four and ranks among the top sixty NCAA Division I pitchers nationally for strikeouts per nine innings at nearly twelve. He aims to become Virginia Tech’s first pitcher to surpass one hundred strikeouts in a single season since Justin Wright achieved that milestone in 2010.
Renfrow is scheduled to make his next start during Virginia Tech’s upcoming away series at California from May 1 through May 3. Before then, Virginia Tech will host James Madison at English Field on April 28.
