College baseball: Pollard leaves Duke for Virginia
Published 6:43 pm Tuesday, June 10, 2025
- Chris Pollard
University of Virginia Sports Information
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Director of Athletics Carla Williams announced the hiring of Chris Pollard as the University of Virginia’s new head baseball coach.
Pollard, who got his first chance to be a college head coach at Pfeiffer, becomes the 16th coach in Virginia’s program history.
Pollard arrives in Charlottesville after spending 13 seasons at Duke, leading the Blue Devils to a 420-296 record, seven NCAA tournament berths, four Super Regional appearances and two ACC Baseball Tournament championships. His 420 wins are the most by a head coach in Duke baseball history.
During his time at Duke, Pollard coached 46 draft picks.
Virginia will be Pollard’s fourth stop as a collegiate head coach. Over his 26 seasons as a skipper, Pollard has compiled a career record of 806-614-3, including stops at Pfeiffer (2000-04), Appalachian State (2005-12) and Duke (2013-25). As he did at Duke in 2025, Pollard led Appalachian State to the NCAA Tournament during his final season with the Mountaineers in 2012.
In his final two seasons in Durham, Pollard led the Blue Devils to back-to-back 40-win campaigns for the first time in program history, culminating in Duke hosting its first Super Regional in 2025. Duke lost the Super Regional series to Murray State.
The 2024 season saw the Blue Devils break the program home run record for the second consecutive season, recording a program-best 115. South Rowan grad Eric Tyler was the hitting coach for the Blue Devils.
Pollard led Duke to an historic season in 2021, capturing the program’s first ACC Baseball Tournament championship and its first conference title since 1961.
Before taking the job at Duke, Pollard spent eight seasons transforming Appalachian State into a perennial mid-major power.
The Pollard era in Boone was highlighted by the 2012 Mountaineers winning their first conference championship since 1987 and advancing to NCAA postseason play for the first time since 1986.
In his final year at Pfeiffer, Pollard coached the Falcons to the winningest season in school history, a 41-14 campaign that culminated with Pfeiffer’s second straight Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference regular-season championship and a berth in the 2004 NCAA Division II South Atlantic Regional.
Pollard broke into the college coaching ranks in 1997 as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at his alma mater, Davidson College.
As a player at Davidson from 1993-96, Pollard became the third pitcher in program history to win 20 games for a career. He ranks among the top 10 in Davidson history with 20 wins (4th), 309 innings pitched (6th) and 18 complete games (6th).
Pollard and his wife, Stephanie, have two sons, Thomas and Brady.
THE CHRIS POLLARD FILE
2013-25 – Duke – Head coach (420-296)
2005-12 – Appalachian State – Head coach (244-210-1)
2000-04 – Pfeiffer – Head coach (141-108-1)
1996-99 — Davidson assistant coach
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