CHARLOTTESVILLE — Virginia’s search for a new baseball coach has the Cavaliers zeroing in on a pair of veteran and established skippers.
Over the last three days, multiple sources have indicated to The Daily Progress that key candidates for the gig are Duke’s Chris Pollard and Connecticut’s Jim Penders.
Duke hosted Murray State on Monday night in a Super Regional Game 3 with a trip to the College World Series on the line.
Pollard has the Blue Devils in the Super Regionals for the second time in the last three seasons and for the fourth time in his 13 seasons as Blue Devils coach.
He’s had other head-coaching stops at Appalachian State and Division II Pfeiffer University.
Pollard is from Amherst County and attended Virginia Episcopal School before heading off to Davidson College, where he was a standout pitcher and ultimately started his coaching career as an assistant.
As for Penders, he’s been at Connecticut as long as former UVa coach Brian O’Connor was in Charlottesville.
This spring was Penders’ 22nd campaign in charge of the Huskies.
He’s a UConn alum who has guided the program to 10 NCAA tournament appearances with seven of those coming over the last decade, including six straight from 2018 through 2024. Under Penders’ watch, Connecticut has captured five straight Big East regular-season crowns since rejoining the league in 2021.
In his career, Penders’ teams have won three Big East Conference tournaments and one American Athletic Conference tournament title.
Penders is UConn’s all-time wins leader, with a career ledger of 773-498-5. He made six straight NCAA tournaments until this year, narrowly missing out on a seventh-consecutive. UConn, like UVa, was one of the first four left out of the field of 64 this year.
The Hoos have been looking for a new coach since June 1, when O’Connor’s move to Mississippi State became official.
Mississippi State will pay O’Connor $2.9 million annually. He was making $1.4 million per year at UVa.
O’Connor brought the bulk of his staff with him to Starkville with the exception of Cavaliers pitching coach Drew Dickinson. Last week, Dickinson told The Daily Progress that he had interest in the UVa head-coaching job and that he was given a chance to talk with UVa athletic director Carla Williams about the opportunity last Monday.
