John Szefc and the Virginia Tech baseball coaching staff landed its second commitment of the transfer portal window with USC Upstate left-hander Chris Torres announcing his pledge earlier today on X.Thankful for this opportunity @HokiesBaseball pic.twitter.com/kMgNXT2oEC— Chris Torres (@ChrisTorres_33) June 15, 2026"Everything was amazing when I toured [Virginia Tech]," Torres said to me earlier today. "The coaching staff, the facilities... everyone was very welcoming there. It was all a big upgrade and what I was really looking for on the developmental side when I was talking with Coach Willey."Entering his senior season, Torres has spent his last two years at USC Upstate, where he's thrown 158 innings across 32 starts, where he helped the Spartans to a pair of NCAA Regionals appearances, combining to give up three runs in seven innings across his two starts against Kentucky and Alabama. (Of note, Alabama was just eliminated from the CWS in Omaha.)A Massachusetts native, Torres has posted a 5.01 ERA in his two years with his former program, striking out 149 batters and limiting walks to just 61 (3.47/9 innings). Per his personal X account, Torres rocks with a four-pitch mix that includes a fastball that sits in the low 90's, along with a changeup and cutter that ride in the mid-high 90's and paired with a slider that sits between the high 70's and low 80's."One thing I'm looking forward to this year is working with the pitching coach and developing maybe some new pitches or some gray areas that I have in my stuff that I already have. So just continuing to improve what I have right now," he said.Torres has averaged about five innings per appearance, with a career-high pitch count of 119, meaning that he is somebody that projects as a ACC starter for Tech alongside Ethan Grim and Logan Eisenreich, who are the other two projected weekend starters."I'm hoping [the pitching staff] keeps me by their side," he said. "We all work together and just become the best we can each day. Really looking forward to meeting a bunch of those guys and everyone on the pitching staff, not just those guys. Everyone's competing for a role. Everyone starts a new season when the fall, and [I'm] just hoping to fit in a role where I can be the most comfortable and hopefully pitch a ton."After his commitment, Torres had one more message to Virginia Tech fans.""Let's just have some fun... I think [the fans] gonna be very energetic and I'm looking forward to playing there," he said.Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow