High-ceiling Harris announces return to Virginia

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo: BVM Sports

Virginia baseball received more good news on Monday when another player pulled his name out of the transfer portal and announced he will return to play for new Cavaliers coach Chris Pollard.

Rising sophomore Aiden Harris, who was the No. 1 recruit in the state of Virginia in the class of ‘24, said he will remain a Wahoo. He is the second player to return to UVA out of the portal over the past two days, joining third-team All-ACC sophomore shortstop Eric Becker, who started all 50 games this past season.

Harris appeared in 11 games last season for Virginia, mostly as a pinch hitter. The Midlothian native has a huge offensive ceiling.

At 6-foot-4, 230 pounds, Harris batted .400 (4 for 10) for UVA in 2025, with a double and 3 RBI.

As a high-schooler, he appeared in Perfect Game’s National Showcase and in the Hank Aaron Invitational and Breakthrough Series. According to Perfect Game, Harris was the top third-base prospect in the nation and the No. 15 overall recruit (at any position) in America.

Becker returning to UVA? Henry Ford to Tennessee

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo: UVA Athletics

Virginia got a major boost for 2026 on Sunday if a posted report by Texas Longhorns Baseball News is accurate. The Texas report said that sources close to the program told the publication that UVA shortstop Eric Becker has decided to return to Charlottesville and play for new Cavaliers coach Chris Pollard.

Meanwhile, former Virginia star and Charlottesville native Henry Ford has committed to Tennessee. Ford, who is considered a potential first-round pick in the upcoming Major League Baseball Draft, is also considered one of the top players in the transfer portal.

Ford hit .348 with 28 home runs and 115 RBI over two seasons at UVA, and was second-team All-ACC this past season, hitting .362 with 11 homers and 46 RBI. He plays outfield and first base.

Becker entered the transfer portal when former UVA coach Brian O’Connor took over the program at Mississippi State. Reportedly, several ACC and SEC schools were battling to sign the Virginia star, who was on the Brooks Wallace Award watch list in 2025, an award that honors the nation’s top shortstop.

A third-team All-ACC selection this past season, Becker was one of four Cavaliers to start all 50 games (all at shortstop).

The rising junior led Virginia in a plethora of offensive categories this past season:

• Batting average: .368
• Slugging percentage: .617
• Runs scored: 54
• RBI: 52
• Doubles: 21
• Total bases: 24
• Multiple-RBI games: 13

In other UVA baseball news, the Cavaliers have added yet another Duke player from the transfer portal.

According to his Instagram account, rising sophomore Blue Devils outfielder Zach Jackson of Smyrna, Ga., has committed to Pollard’s program at UVA. Jackson appeared in 16 games this past season and scored 5 runs, while adding 2 RBI in only 4 at-bats.

This summer, Jackson is playing in the Appalachian League, where he already has two home runs.

Virginia gets three pitchers to flip, plus All-American transfer infielder

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo: UVA Athletics

New Virginia coach Chris Pollard flipped the commitments of three outstanding high school pitchers previously headed to Duke, and landed the MAAC Player of the Year from the transfer portal as he continued to fill the Cavaliers’ roster for 2026.

Noah Yoder, a right-handed pitcher from Mechanicsville (Atlee High School) and John Paone, also a right-handed pitcher from Lexington, Mass., both announced on their Twitter accounts that they had decommitted from Duke and committed to Pollard’s UVA program. Also, another right-hander, Christian Lucarelli, from Beaver Falls, Pa., said on his Twitter account Friday that he had flipped his commitment from Duke to Virginia.

On top of those three recruiting flips, Joe Tiroly, who was the MAAC Player of the Year for Rider University, announced that he has transferred to Virginia.

Yoder is a 6-foot-5, 230-pound righty with a massive ceiling, garnering lots of interest for next month’s Major League Baseball Draft. If Pollard can keep him at Virginia, it would be a major recruiting coup.

Yoder consistently hits the mid-90s with his fastball, which has already been clocked up to 98 mph, and continues to grow his velocity. He also has an above-average curveball (low 80s), a slider (85-87) and changeup (83-86).

Paone is a 6-3, 205-pound righty from Lawrence Academy High School in Massachusetts. He is tops in the recruiting class of 2025 rankings for the state by Perfect Game.

Paone’s fastball is 92-96 mph, with a slider at 86 and changeup 86.

Lucarelli announced his commitment to Virginia on Friday, flipping from the Blue Devils, meaning that six former Duke commitments are headed to Charlottesville.

Lucarelli is a 6-3, 215-pound righty who played for Riverside High School in Beaver Falls, also the hometown of former NFL star quarterback Joe Namath. Lucarelli has a 93-mph fastball, a curveball that has been clocked between 74-76 mph, a changeup 78.7 to 81 mph and a slider between 76.5 and 82.

Meanwhile, Tiroly was a third-team All-American infielder at Rider as selected by the American Baseball Coaches Association and Rawlings. He hit third in the lineup for Rider and posted 75 hits, 17 home runs, 64 RBI with 16 doubles. His slash line was: .377/.481/.749.

He is projected to play second base or shortstop for the Cavaliers.

Pollard was born to be a Wahoo at some point

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo: UVA Athletics

This sportswriter first met Chris Pollard in 2012 when he brought his Appalachian State baseball team to Disharoon Park for an NCAA regional.

During an interview with the young Appy coach, he revealed that he had grown up a Virginia sports fan and had great admiration for how then-UVA baseball coach Brian O’Connor had built a national power. A native of Amherst, just south of Charlottesville, it was only natural that someday coaching the Cavaliers would be a dream come true.

On Wednesday afternoon, Pollard was introduced as Virginia’s head coach. Dream job accomplished.

“Without question,” Pollard said when I asked him about those long-term visions. “It’s a full-circle moment for me and certainly my parents.”

Pollard takes over a UVA program that has made 18 NCAA tournament appearances in 22 seasons under O’Connor, including three trips to the College World Series in the last four years.

Sitting in Disharoon’s Fieldside Club, Pollard described his love for Virginia athletics as a youngster and beyond.

“I grew up in the ‘80s watching Terry Holland coach Ralph Sampson and I can remember being at my grandmother’s house and UVA getting bounced in the NCAA Tournament,” Pollard recalled. “They ran a little highlight montage on WSET (Lynchburg television) and I went and sat in the basement. I was so disappointed.

“Fast forward, when I went to Davidson as an athlete (Pollard was a pitcher for the Wildcats, 1993-96), Terry Holland was the athletic director. That was incredible. I still remember my dad when I made my official visit, getting a chance to interact with Coach Holland.”

In between those moments, Pollard was an excited youth baseball player who attended (former UVA coach) Dennis Womack’s baseball camp.

It was almost like he was born to become a Wahoo at some point in his life.

While his coaching career took him from Pfeiffer to Appalachian State to Duke, his love for Virginia and Charlottesville never wilted.

Pollard talked at length Wednesday about the love he has “for this part of the world (Central Virginia),” and how he cherished driving Amherst, Nelson and Albemarle counties, which he considers some of the most beautiful places on the planet.

“It’s not hyperbole to say this, Steph (his wife) and I would come up and visit family, and for years the holiday gift was, ‘Hey, we’ll keep the kids, you guys go up and have a weekend in Charlottesville or spend the night in Charlottesville. So it just grew our love of this incredible city.”

While retirement is in the distance for him, Pollard and his wife had talked about Charlottesville as a final destination for when that day comes. He and his two sons are avid outdoorsmen, they love fishing, kayaking and mountain biking. Chris and his dad used to float many of the area’s rivers back in the day.

After that 2012 regional, Pollard returned to Charlottesville to pick O’Connor’s brain about how to build a championship program from a coach who would become not only a mentor, but also a close friend. He took copious notes about every aspect of Virginia baseball and applied those to his program.

Pollard and his Duke baseball team were in a bus a few weeks ago when news broke that O’Connor was leaving Virginia to take over the program at Mississippi State. He texted O’Connor congratulations and O’Connor texted back. They agreed to catch up when the dust settled, and when news broke last week that Pollard was coming to Virginia, he received a similar congratulatory text from O’Connor.

About those notes, Pollard said his main takeaway was attention to detail, something that was huge with O’Connor and has become a blueprint for Pollard’s programs.

“We call it Omaha standard attention to detail, right?” Pollard said. “Everything matters. Our guys hear me say this all the time, ‘How you do anything is how you do everything.’

“Certainly that was one of many factors that caught Virginia athletic director Carla Williams’ attention. Introducing Pollard, she described him as “the perfect person to lead our baseball program into this new era.”

Pollard is a winner, an intelligent coach who recruits great talent and develops that talent.

The new Wahoos skipper is bringing his Duke coaching staff with him, so that is one hurdle cleared, meaning that his biggest challenge now is to build his roster. Several of his former Duke players have already transferred to Virginia in addition to at least three previous Blue Devils high school commitments. Numerous UVA players entered the transfer portal, some of which have followed O’Connor to Starkville, but some, like third baseman Luke Hanson, have elected to stay. Pollard will reach out to other players in hopes of retaining some of the players in the portal.

“I had no sort of preconceived notion that any one player from Duke would make the journey to UVA,” Pollard said. “I was excited about the opportunity, once guys went into the portal, to have conversations and to sell them on what the opportunity at the University of Virginia is all about, the unique combination of a world-class university still playing baseball in the ACC. But the easy part is, all those guys have been to this incredible facility just a couple of months ago.

“So they had hit in the Zimmerman facility. They had trained in the weight room, and knowing that you have that unique, elite combination of academics and athletics and this facility to train in in order to become the best version of yourself. It didn’t take a lot of arm-twisting.”

Pollard said that the UVA players that didn’t enter the portal need to understand that he and his staff are here to support them no matter what they decide to do, that the program is behind them. He has made it clear to them that there is real opportunity here. He’s met individually with them in his office at Disharoon and over the phone in hopes to earn their trust.

“There’s no bias in place,” Pollard said. “It’s everybody gets to go out there on the field this fall and earn it, and that’s a really cool environment if you really like to compete.”

COMING THURSDAY AND FRIDAY: Pollard explains his culture; How about the new scholarship limit, where does Virginia stand; Pollard’s range of emotions over the past week; and what fans can expect in terms of style of play.

UVA gains Duke LHP; loses two commits to O’Connor

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo by Nikolozi Khutsishvili

The merry-go-round between Duke, Virginia and Mississippi State continued on Tuesday when another Blue Devil announced that he would follow former coach Chris Pollard to Virginia. Meanwhile, former UVA coach Brian O’Connor flipped commitments from two Cavalier recruits by convincing them to join him in Starkville.

Former Duke pitcher Max Stammel, who made 18 appearances as a left-handed freshman pitcher, announced he would transfer to UVA. Stammel is a 6-foot-3, 190-pound hurler from Dallas, Texas (Highland Park H.S.).

The rising sophomore was rated the No. 19 left-handed pitcher in Texas his senior season at Highland Park and was named a Perfect Game All-American. In three years of high school ball, he struck out 211 batters and was a Texas High School All-Star his senior season.

As a freshman at Duke this past season, Stammel had one start, but his other 17 appearances were out of the bullpen. In 22 innings pitched, he posted 25 strikeouts.

Down in Starkville, Miss., O’Connor flipped two previous UVA commitments, catcher Hunter Strohm and Noah Danza, a shortstop from New Jersey, who has another year of high school baseball ahead of him.

3 more Blue Devils transfer to UVA, plus 2 flips

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo: UVA Athletics

Three more former Duke players and two more Blue Devils commitments have announced they will follow Chris Pollard to Virginia.

Over the last few days, five of Pollard’s players from Duke have said they’re transferring to UVA, in addition to two recruits flipping their commitments from the Blue Devils to the Cavaliers.

Left-handed pitcher Henry Zatkowski, who posted a 5-2 record as a freshman this past season, said he is transferring to UVA, along with first baseman/outfielder Sam Harris and infielder Noah Murray, who grew up in nearby Crozet. In addition, 2025 prospect Will Huggins of Bowden, Ga., decommitted from Duke and committed to Virginia, as well as R.J. Holmes, a shortstop/centerfielder from Menifee, Calif., who flipped from the Blue Devils to the Cavaliers. Holmes is one of the most explosive players in the ’25 recruiting class according to one scouting report, which also said: “He has the tools to impact both sides of the ball with elite bat speed, a 6.55 in 60-yard dash and th range to shine at short or center.”

They join two other former Duke standouts, star outfielder A.J. Gracia and pitcher Kyle Johnson, who transferred to Virginia on Thursday (see related story). Also, former Duke commit, pitcher Jayden Stroman, the younger brother of New York Yankees pitcher Marcus Stroman, flipped his commitment to Virginia on Wednesday.

Zatkowski struck out 58 batters in 59.1 innings this past season and walked only 11, while compiling a 4.83 ERA in 11 starts for the Blue Devils.

Harris, a power-hitting, rising junior, hit 9 home runs and had 42 RBI, while hitting .297 for Duke this past season.

Murray, also a rising junior, hit .342 in 38 at-bats in 2025 and added 10 RBI.

Huggins is a shortstop, 6-2, 185, and had previously committed to the Blue Devils.

Pollard announces Virginia coaching staff for upcoming season

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Photo: UVA Athletics

Virginia baseball head coach Chris Pollard announced Saturday the additions of assistant coaches Brady Kirkpatrick, Derek Simmons and Eric Tyler, along with John Natoli and Brian Sakowski as additional staff members.

The quintet led Duke to a 41-21 record in 2025 and propelled the Blue Devils to their first home Super Regional in program history.

Kirkpatrick and Tyler joined Pollard in Durham before the 2023 season, while Simmons arrived at Duke before the 2025 campaign.

Sakowski and Natoli both made their debuts on the Blue Devil staff during the 2024 season.

Brady Kirkpatrick – Pitching Coach

In Kirkpatrick’s final season at Duke, the Blue Devil arms ranked second in the ACC in WHIP (1.37), third in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.58) and sixth in strikeouts per nine innings (9.6) along the way to securing a 40-win season.

Under his guidance in 2024, the Duke pitching staff helped capture the program’s second ACC tournament title and held opponents to 4.86 runs per game and a batting average of .220.

In his first season at the helm of the pitching staff, Kirkpatrick helped Duke to a 39-24 record and the program’s third Super Regional appearance, utilizing an opener strategy on the mound. The Blue Devil hurlers set a program record with 675 strikeouts in 2023.

Over his first two seasons at Duke, Kirkpatrick tutored seven MLB Draft picks, three All-Americans and two freshman All-Americans.

Before he arrived in Durham, Kirkpatrick was as an assistant at Florida Atlantic (2022), Harvard (2019-21), Monmouth (2017-18) and Rochester University (2016).

No stranger to the ACC, Kirkpatrick pitched three years at Maryland and his final college season at San Diego. In 2014, he was part of the Terrapins’ first Super Regional team. Kirkpatrick began his coaching career as a volunteer assistant at USD and he earned his master’s degree in global business leadership in 2015.

The Eugene, Oregon, native was a two-time Scholar-Athlete Award winner, earning his undergraduate degree in criminology and criminal justice from Maryland in 2014.

Derek Simmons – Recruiting Coordinator/Infielders

In his lone season with the Blue Devils, Simmons coordinated all developmental aspects for the infielders and spearheaded Duke’s recruiting efforts as the recruiting coordinator.

Simmons arrived in Durham after spending five seasons at Indiana working with hitters, infielders and as the program’s recruiting coordinator. Known for his recruiting prowess,

Simmons secured a pair of top 25 classes to go along with four other top classes per Collegiate Baseball Newspaper while at Indiana. In 2023, the Hoosiers class was tabbed as the 17th-best class in the country, the highest in Indiana program history. 

During his time in Bloomington, Simmons helped oversee the development of multiple MLB Draft picks, three Freshman All-Americans in 2022, one freshman All-American hitter in 2023, and a program-record 26 Big Ten victories during the 2021 conference-only slate.

Before arriving at Indiana, Simmons was an assistant coach at Kent State, where he helped the Golden Flashes land the second-highest recruiting class in program history during the 2018-19 cycle as the program’s recruiting coordinator. The 2019 freshman class entered as the No. 25-ranked class in the country by Collegiate Baseball. 

Simmons also had stops at Alabama (2017) and Kennesaw State (2013-16) before joining the Golden Flashes in 2018. He began his coaching career as a volunteer assistant coach at Central Michigan (2011-12), helping the Chippewas claim a 2011 Mid-American Conference West Division title with seven student-athletes on the all-MAC squad.

The Duluth, Georgia, native started his playing career at the University of Montevallo and helped the Falcons to the Division II College World Series in 2006. A two-year letterwinner at UM, he went on to earn two more letters and was named team captain at Georgia State. The first player in Panthers history to earn first-team all-conference honors twice, Simmons finished his career among the top 10 in numerous single-season categories with a career batting average of .344.

Eric Tyler – Recruiting Coordinator/Hitting Coach

Under the tutelage of Tyler, the 2025 Duke squad set school records in runs (516), home runs (115), RBIs (488) and walks (408).

During his first two seasons with the Blue Devils, Tyler coached three freshman All-Americans, one All-American, five All-ACC recipients, eight regional or ACC Championship members, and two regional or ACC Championship Most Outstanding Players. Duke also sent freshmen AJ Gracia and Kyle Johnson (Utility) to the US Collegiate National Team Training Camp during the summer of 2024.

In 2024, the Blue Devils offense was once again record-shattering, setting new program bests in runs (501), home runs (115), RBI (467), and total bases (1,138). Under Tyler’s guidance, freshman AJ Gracia became the program leader in RBI by a freshman, surpassing big leaguer Joey Loperfido with 58. Gracia also moved into first all-time by a freshman with 14 home runs during his rookie campaign. 

When Tyler arrived in Durham, Duke’s offense exploded during the 2023 season, recording 2,206 at-bats, the program-best at-bats, 481 runs scored, 617 hits, 124 doubles, and a program-record 109 home runs.

Prior to Duke, Tyler spent four years as the Chief Operating Officer and Director of Teams with Baseball Rebellion.

A graduate of East Carolina University, Tyler started at third base for the Pirates from 2015-17. During his time in Greenville, the Landis, N.C. native compiled a .296 average in 219 career games. He drove in 107 RBI, 43 doubles, walked 72 times, stole 16 bases, and gathered 57 extra base hits, including 14 home runs. A First Team All-AAC recipient in 2017, Tyler was an East Carolina team captain during the 2016-17 season. Following his graduation from ECU, he joined the Pirates coaching staff under Cliff Godwin.

John Natoli – Director of Player Development

Natoli, a former right-hander for Duke in 2022, was a part of the 2024 squad’s run to the program’s second ACC Tournament championship. At Duke, the Fairfield, Conn., native assisted with coordinating all on-campus recruiting visits, serves as the Duke Baseball Camp Director and managed all day-to-day duties of the baseball program.

His role in Durham included the handling of team travel, meals and the daily operation of all baseball technology.

Following his time as a player for Duke, Natoli spent a year and a half with the Glacier Range Riders of the Pioneer League. With the Riders, Natoli posted a 4-0 record, tallied three saves and struck out 50 batters in 42 appearances across two seasons.

Before he arrived in Durham, Natoli enjoyed a four-year career at Cornell where he was named a unanimous selection as the lone relief pitcher on the All-Ivy League First Team in 2019. He posted a 5-2 record with a team-best 1.72 ERA. He held opponents to a .178 batting average and allowed just two of his 18 inherited runners to score.

Brian Sakowski – Director of Recruiting

Sakowski joined the Blue Devils staff in January of 2024 as the Director of Recruiting, Analytics and Player Development.

Before joining the Duke staff, Sakowski spent the previous six years with Perfect Game as a National Crosschecker and National Scouting Supervisor.

While with the Perfect Game staff, Sakowski coached with the Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Prep Academy in Orchard Lake, Mich. During his time as the varsity assistant coach, Orchard Lake won the 2019 and 2021 MHSAA State Championships and committed over 20-plus NCAA Division I recruits, as well as 30-plus overall players to colleges across the country.

He received a degree in Political and Social Sciences from Central Michigan University in 2014.