Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG, Va. – Bolstering its competitive edge within its developmental pitching program, Virginia Tech baseball head coach John Szefc formally welcomed Josh Reynolds as the Hokies’ new director of pitching performance, baseball analytics on Wednesday.
An established mind in the game with a plethora of power conference coaching experience, Reynolds joins Virginia Tech after spending the previous two seasons at Tennessee where he served as assistant coach (2026) as well as director of baseball operations and pitching performance (2025). Reynolds – who coached alongside Szefc on Brad Hill’s 2011 and 2012 staffs at Kansas State – was the associate head coach (2016-21) and interim head coach (2021-22) at Northwestern prior to syncing with Cincinnati as assistant coach in 2024.
“We want to welcome Josh Reynolds to our coaching staff,” said Szefc. “He will be a tremendous addition to our staff in the role of director of pitching performance and baseball analytics.
“I have personally known Josh for more than 15 years. He is one of the best pitching guys in the business. His work, coupled with that of Doug Willey, will really elevate our whole pitching operation in general.
“I also want to welcome his wife, Ashleigh, his daughter, Azlynn, and his son, Jax, to Blacksburg. It is always great to bring a baseball person and a baseball family into our environment. We will certainly be way, way better because the Reynolds are here.”
During his two-season run at Tennessee, Reynolds contributed in many facets to two highly successful campaigns on the diamond, highlighted by the Volunteers’ 84 combined victories, .672 winning percentage and 2025 NCAA Knoxville Regional championship as the tournament’s No. 14 national seed. Following his November 2025 promotion to assistant coach, he positioned Tennessee among the top 10 NCAA Division I pitching staffs in three categories ahead of its berth in the 2026 NCAA Chapel Hill Regional – fewest walks allowed per nine innings (3.13), strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.33) and WHIP (1.27) – also cracking the top 50 in ERA (4.71).
Prior to coaching in the SEC, Reynolds was the assistant coach at Cincinnati during the Bearcats’ inaugural Big 12 campaign in 2024 that resulted in the program’s first 30-win season since 2019. Upon his arrival, he shaved close to a full run off Cincinnati’s team ERA from the previous season, helping the Bearcats overcome their last-place league projection to finish fifth in the year-end standings.
In July 2015, Reynolds began his seven-year tenure at Northwestern as the Wildcats’ associate head coach, overseeing the pitching staff in addition to leading the program’s recruiting operations. Two years in (2017), Northwestern achieved its highest win total since 2000 while making a run to its first Big Ten championship game since 1984 – accolades aided by the work of Reynolds, who lowered the Wildcats’ team ERA by more than a run and produced an increase of 98 team strikeouts.
With eight games remaining in the 2021 regular season, Reynolds was named the interim head coach at Northwestern, carrying the title into the 2022 campaign. Under his leadership that season, the Wildcats tied for their second best winning percentage within a 17-year interval.
Reynolds made his first true jump to the power conference ranks in 2011 as the assistant coach at Kansas State where he linked up with Szefc during the first two years of his five-year stay with the Wildcats. In 2011, Reynolds contributed on the pitching side to Kansas State’s 36-win season that culminated with the Wildcats’ trip to the NCAA Fullerton Regional – achievements outdone by their 2013 club that won 45 games, championed the NCAA Manhattan Regional and finished one win shy of advancing to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
Among his early collegiate stops, Reynolds held assistant coaching roles on the staffs at Evansville (2009-10) and Northeast Texas Community College (2007), earning his post-professional start as a graduate assistant at Kansas State (2004-06) where he would soon return.
As a player, Reynolds was a three-year right-handed pitcher at Central Missouri where he set the career record for victories (32), highlighted by his 12-win campaign as a junior in 2000. After leading the Mules consecutively during the 1999 and 2000 seasons in innings pitched, strikeouts and wins, he was named to the 2000 ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Division II All-American First Team on his way to his 2007 induction into the Central Missouri Athletic Hall of Fame.
A coveted pitching prospect, Reynolds was selected at No. 95 overall by the New York Mets during the third round of the 2000 MLB Draft. Through his four minor league seasons, he logged 79 career professional appearances, totaling 21 wins and 211 strikeouts spanning 295 and two-third innings pitched.