Pollard Announces Baseball Staff

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia baseball head coach Chris Pollard announced Friday (June 13) 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.