By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Chris Pollard gets to cross an item off his wish list this weekend.
Pollard, who’s in his first year as head coach at the University of Virginia, has never been to Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field, home of the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles. The stadium, Pollard said, is “one of the truly unique and great atmospheres of college baseball. I'm a college baseball fan, in addition to coaching, and so it's a place that's been on my bucket list.”
The 64-team field for the NCAA tournament was announced Monday afternoon, and the Cavaliers are headed to Hattiesburg, Miss. Virginia (36-31) is the No. 2 seed in a four-team regional hosted by top-seeded Southern Miss (44-15). The Nos. 3 and 4 seeds, respectively, are Jacksonville State (46-13) and Little Rock (36-26).
Southern Miss is the No. 9 overall seed in the NCAA tournament.
“It's a tough regional,” said Pollard, who came to UVA from Duke last year. “It reminds me a little bit of 2021, when we took [Duke] out to Tennessee. We had four high-RPI teams in the same regional. But this time of year, when you get to this point, everybody's good. And so we're thrilled to still be playing.”
The double-elimination regional begins with two games Friday. At 2 p.m. ET, Southern Miss meets Little Rock. At 7 p.m. ET, UVA takes on Jacksonville State, which in No. 25 in the latest RPI. Virginia is No. 26.
Heading down South ✈️#GoHoos pic.twitter.com/MDHcZnECc8
— Virginia Baseball (@UVABaseball) May 25, 2026
Jacksonville State, which is located in Alabama, routed Liberty 10-0 in the Conference USA championship game.
The Gamecocks are “a team that candidly should have and could have been a 2-seed,” Pollard said. “You look at their RPI, you look at their body of work, and I have unbelievable respect for their coaching staff. I've gotten to know those guys well, and what they've built there in a short amount of time is really, really impressive.”
The Wahoos are back in the NCAAs after missing the tournament last year.
“This is your reward for staying in the fight,” Pollard told his team before the selection show aired Monday.
Most of Pollard’s coaching staff followed him from Durham, N.C., to Charlottesville last year, along with seven players from Duke, which advanced to an NCAA super regional in 2025. At Disharoon Park, the former Blue Devils joined six other transfers, a well-regard freshman class and the holdovers from head coach Brian O’Connor’s final team at UVA, including outfielder Harrison Didawick and shortstop Eric Becker.
This is Didawick’s fourth year in the program, and in each of his first two seasons Virginia advanced to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
“After the first two years, it felt like it was kind of like a lock almost [to make the NCAA tournament],” Didawick said Monday, “so it was definitely was a punch in the stomach last year when you didn't make it, and it makes you really appreciate it when you do.”
It was rough watching the selection show last year “and not hearing our name called,” said Becker, who’s a junior. “It was definitely a relief seeing our name up there [Monday]. This is best time of the year, postseason baseball. This is what you play baseball for, trying to make it to Omaha. So I'm definitely super excited that we get the opportunity to play.”
Pollard, who spent 13 seasons at Duke, took over at UVA early last June.
“It’s been a very unusual year,” he said. “Not because of the transition or the coaching change or the large number of new players. It's been an unusual year because we've had some really weird injuries. We had a once-in-a-generation snowstorm in January that kept us off the field all preseason. This group has just shown a lot of resilience and stay in the fight, and this is their reward for staying in the fight and the ability to keep playing, to have another week together. And I want those guys to savor every bit of this. They deserve it.”