College baseball notebook: Players who followed Chris Pollard from Duke leading the way for Virginia
Virginia's baseball program has shown no drop-off without Brian O'Connor. In fact, the Cavaliers are doing quite nicely with Chris Pollard at the helm. The new-look Wahoos (20-5, 6-3) are in the top 10 in the polls and have won their first three Atlantic Coast Conference series to sit in a five-way tie for second behind Florida State.
Virginia's baseball program has shown no drop-off without Brian O'Connor. In fact, the Cavaliers are doing quite nicely with Chris Pollard at the helm. The new-look Wahoos (20-5, 6-3) are in the top 10 in the polls and have won their first three Atlantic Coast Conference series to sit in a five-way tie for second behind Florida State.
Only five position players and six pitchers returned from last year's team, which finished 32-18 overall, 16-11 in the ACC and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019. O'Connor, who coached the Cavaliers for 22 seasons, made a surprise move to Mississippi State in June. Virginia hired away Pollard from ACC rival Duke, where he had won 420 games in 13 years and led the Blue Devils to seven NCAAs.
The Cavaliers, after an 11-2 start, have won ACC series at then-No. 8 North Carolina and at home against Virginia Tech and then-No. 24 Wake Forest.
They're among the national leaders in scoring (10 runs per game) and homers (46), and Duke transfers AJ Gracia and Sam Harris each have gone deep eight times. The Nos. 1 and 2 starting pitchers, Henry Zatkowski (4-0, 5.