Hoos Will Look to Build on NCAA ExperienceHoos Will Look to Build on NCAA Experience

Hoos Will Look to Build on NCAA Experience

UVA ended its first season under Chris Pollard with a 37-23 record after falling to Jacksonville State on Sunday in the NCAA tournament's Hattiesburg Regional.

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

HATTIESBURG, Miss. — All across the country, college baseball teams saw their seasons end in NCAA regionals this weekend, so the Virginia Cavaliers had plenty of company. That didn’t make the conclusion of their first season under head coach Chris Pollard any less painful for them.

Second-seeded UVA survived one elimination game at the Hattiesburg Regional, defeating top-seeded Southern Mississippi 15-11 in 10 innings on Saturday afternoon. In the second one, though, the Wahoos fell 7-6 to third-seeded Jacksonville State on Sunday at Pete Taylor Park.

Both of the Hoos’ losses in this four-team regional were to Jax State, which swept Conference USA’s regular-season and tournament titles. The Gamecocks topped Virginia 15-7 on Friday night.

“They’re a really, really good club,” Pollard said Sunday evening. “They’re deep on the mound. They're dynamic. They can score in a lot of different ways. They're athletic. They play good defense. Certainly in all the years that I've been in NCAA tournaments, that's the best 3-seed that I've ever come up against.”

Jax State went up 4-0 on a second-inning grand slam and added three more runs in the seventh Sunday. Down 7-0, the Hoos nearly pulled off a stunning rally. They scored six runs in the top of the eighth—catcher Jake Weatherspoon doubled in three runs and shortstop Eric Becker a two-run double—to set up a tense finish.

“We knew that with that high-powered offense they were coming at some point,” Jax State head coach Steve Bieser said, “and it’s a testament to how they're coached over there, and how they just never quit and just keep coming at you.”

In the bottom of the ninth, Jax State summoned left-hander Josh Sibley from the bullpen. The Gamecocks’ starter Sunday was another left-hander, Steven Cash, who for seven innings baffled UVA batters with his off-speed pitches, and Sibley had similar success. He retired the Cavaliers in order to extend Jax State’s season.

“We've struggled with left-handed changeup all year,” Pollard said. “It's been a nemesis for us. I knew it was a tough matchup. We struggled with it again today.

“I thought we competed great once we got [Cash] out of the ball game and were able to put the tying and the go-ahead runs on base in the eighth. Our guys never stopped fighting. I thought we played a much cleaner game today than we did on Friday against a team that can put pressure on you in a lot of different ways.”

Virginia finished the season with a 37-23 record. The 37 wins are the second-most by a head coach in his first year at UVA. (Brian O’Connor’s 2004 team won 44 games.)

“Just reflecting back on the season, losing in the semifinals of a regional, that's not our aspirations,” Pollard said Sunday. “It's not the expectations for this program. But I will say this, this team did a lot of really good things over the course of this year: 37 wins against a top-15 schedule in the country.”

After missing the NCAA tournament in 2025, the Cavaliers went through a turbulent offseason. O’Connor left to take the same position at Mississippi State, and UVA hired Pollard, who’d been at Duke for 13 seasons.

For the coaching staff, last summer was like “drinking from a fire hose,” Pollard said. “We were trying to assemble a roster so quickly. You've got about 30 days to build a roster. And now we can go out and we can be more surgical in our approach to really filling needs around the good young players that are here and the good young players that are coming in, and really be in a position, when we hit the ground running in the fall, to have so much more continuity in terms of player development. And I'm very much looking forward to that.”

The roster figures to look much different in 2027. Several Cavaliers are out of eligibility, most notably left-fielder Harrison Didawick, and others, including juniors Becker, center-fielder AJ Gracia and second baseman Joe Tiroly, are expected to start pursuing professional baseball careers this summer.

Still, Pollard believes the momentum generated by this trip to the NCAA tournament will benefit his program.

“You're one of the 64 teams still left [after the NCAA selection show],” he said, “and I told our guys early in the week about 90% of college baseball would like to trade places with you right now. Is the goal to be a 1-seed and be hosting at Disharoon Park? Yeah, that's the goal every year, and to put this program in the very best position to go to Omaha. But to still be playing this weekend and still be playing on Sunday of a regional, it gives us momentum going into the offseason ... There’s a bunch of good young players [already in the program]. There's a bunch of good young players coming in, and we're going to bring in additional players along with them to put this program in a position to take the next step forward next year.”

Harrison DidawickHarrison Didawick

Didawick, a senior who helped the Hoos advance to the College World Series in 2023 and ‘24, and RJ Holmes, a freshman, joined Pollard at the postgame press conference. Didawick finished his college career ranked in the top 10 at Virginia in games played, at-bats, runs scored, home runs, RBI and total bases. With 42 career homers, he ranks second all-time at UVA.

“This dude will go down as one of the all-time greats in the history of this program,” Pollard said.

Didawick and other upperclassmen could have left after the coaching change but opted to stay. They deserve much of the credit for the Cavaliers’ success this season, Pollard said, for “the way they helped 26 new players, eight new coaches, two new support-staff members assimilate, come together, and the way they built culture amongst the team. I can't say enough great things about what that group of returning players did over the course of this year.

“I'm so proud of Harrison Didawick. He obviously had expectations to start his professional career after the ‘25 season, should have been drafted. But then when it didn't happen, he came back. We sat in the office. It was an awesome conversation. And I knew right from that very first conversation, this is a guy that I'd love to get a chance to coach. And he's nothing but come out with great energy every day. He's a tremendous teammate. He's a tremendous leader. He's had a great season. I've told him this, but I'll say it again, I'm going to run through a wall to give him every opportunity to keep playing. He deserves it, and he's good enough to play this game for a long time.”

Didawick said he’ll remember his UVA career “as probably my best four years of my life. I made some friendships that I'll cherish for the rest of my life, I’ll be at their weddings, they’ll be at my wedding. And just all the things I've gone through, overcame with my teammates, coaches, and just all the failures and successes, it’s just magical. And I'm just glad I got to come back fourth year and do it again and make the NCAA tournament.”

Holmes will be among the players who take on bigger roles going forward. He finished his first college season with a .338 batting average and steadily improved defensively.

Becker missed more than a dozen games with injuries, and Holmes took over at shortstop in his absence. With Becker back in the lineup Sunday, Holmes was used as Virginia’s designated hitter and went 1-for-3 with an RBI. In three games in Hattiesburg, Holmes hit .600 (6-for-10).

“His development over the course of this season has been awesome,” Pollard said. “Wasn't playing early, never pouted, never checked out, never took reps off, just showed up every day and got on the two-hop machine and worked on his defense. He did a lot of work on his throwing action, continued to work every day, put in the time to develop offensively, and just to see him grow and have so many big at-bats down the stretch was really cool. He's got an awesome future ahead of him.”

Holmes’ classmates include pitchers John Paone, Thomas Stewart, Noah Yoder and Christian Lucarelli, each of whom made at least one appearance in the Hattiesburg Regional.

“There's a great nucleus of young arm talent in this program,” Pollard said “and see those guys grow and develop over the course of this season and be able to pitch in higher-leverage situations [was great]. And look, there's some good guys coming in to pair up with them. I like where that depth is at.”

Holmes said the team’s postseason experience showed the underclassmen “how to fight. This whole season has been up and downs, but we were all banged up and we all just really fought together. Probably our whole lineup was hurt, but we really wanted to just keep playing.”

Becker exemplified that perseverance. A pitch struck his left arm during his first-inning at-bat Friday and he had to leave the game. Becker wasn’t able to hit Saturday and didn’t take the field at shortstop until the 10th inning against Southern Miss.

“People don't realize how many nagging injuries he's played through all year,” Pollard said. “The hand is documented, but there were so many other injuries along the way that he just gutted out. There were so many guys out there today limping through the ball game but [who] just wanted to be there for their teammates.”

Becker worked “exceptionally hard with Bailey Hill, our athletic trainer and physical therapist, to do everything he could to get ready to play,” Pollard said, “and he didn't even want to go through [batting practice on Sunday]. He said, ‘Look, I'm in there.’ And to see him go in and gut it out in that way and have that big at-bat and put himself at second base as the tying run after we had rallied there in the eight, it just goes to speak to his toughness and the type of player that he is and the mindset he has. You're talking about a guy that's going to have a great professional career.”

To receive Jeff White’s articles by email, click the appropriate box in this link to subscribe.

Freshman RJ Holmes went 6-for-10 at the Hattiesburg RegionalFreshman RJ Holmes went 6-for-10 at the Hattiesburg Regional