College baseball notebook: Players who followed Chris Pollard from Duke leading the way for Virginia

By Canadian Press on March 23, 2026.

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, 5.58 ERA) and Max Stammel (2-1, 4.97), also came with Pollard from Duke. Reliever Lucas Hartman, a graduate transfer from Western Kentucky, is 4-0 with a 1.47 ERA over 30 2/3 innings.

The Cavaliers scored the final 12 runs after falling behind 4-2 against Wake Forest on Sunday for a 14-4 win, their eighth in which they have come from behind.

“That’s been a hallmark of this group to this point in the year,” Pollard said. “When we fall behind, we are really good at having a quick answer.”

In the polls

The top three teams remained the same Monday in polls by D1Baseball.com and Baseball America.

No. 1 UCLA (21-2) extended its win streak to 15 games with a home sweep of Maryland. No. 2 Texas (20-3) took two of three against Auburn, including a 5-0 win Sunday that marked the Longhorns’ first conference shutout as an SEC member. No. 3 Georgia Tech (19-5) held its spot after dropping a midweek game at Auburn and winning two of three at Pittsburgh.

Trojans keep rolling

Southern California is out to its best start in program history through 25 games, improving to 24-1 after sweeping Washington.

Ace left-hander Mason Edwards has put together six straight dominant performances, his most recent coming Friday when he pitched six scoreless innings and struck out a career-high 12 in a 5-0 victory over the Huskies. Edwards (5-0, 0.25 ERA) has allowed just one earned run over 36 innings and struck out 64. The staff’s 1.83 ERA leads the nation.

Home run derby

Cincinnati’s Quinton Coats and Jack Natili each hit three home runs in a 20-10 run-rule victory over Utah on Saturday. Coats’ third homer came in the seventh inning, and Natili’s third came in the eighth and ended the game. Coats leads the nation with 18 homers.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Eric Olson, The Associated Press