CHARLOTTESVILLE — Chris Davis is in professional baseball now, but he still finds himself leaning on lessons he absorbed during his two seasons at Duke.
Especially, he said, when a potential pressure-packed situation arises.
With his Joliet Slammers trailing by a run heading into the bottom of the ninth of their Frontier League tilt against the Mississippi Mud Monsters on Tuesday night, Davis was due to lead off the last-chance inning for the home team.
“I still use the stuff Coach [Chris] Pollard teaches,†Davis, a former Blue Devils team captain and outfielder, told The Daily Progress by phone this week.
Pollard was Duke’s coach for 13 years up until Tuesday, when he officially was hired as Virginia’s new skipper and tasked with stepping in for former longtime Cavaliers coach Brian O’Connor, who departed UVa earlier this month for the same job at Mississippi State.
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Davis said he believes Pollard’s personality and values match that of UVa, and that Pollard is bound to succeed in Charlottesville like he did in Durham. Under Pollard, Duke reached the NCAA tournament seven times and had four Super Regional appearances. The Blue Devils also won a pair of ACC tournaments.
“And I started feeling a little nervous,†Davis said of that at-bat on Tuesday night. “And when I feel the nerves, I start to think, ‘Let’s switch to gratitude,’ like Coach Pollard always talks about, so I started thinking, ‘How cool is this? I get an opportunity in the bottom of the ninth inning to help our team win.’â€
Davis singled to open the inning, giving the Slammers hope.
It wasn’t too different from the way Pollard discussed the chance his former team had earlier this week. The Blue Devils took the opener of the Durham Super Regional against Murray State, but dropped Game 2 and Game 3 to fall one win short of Omaha.
But after the Game 2 setback last Sunday, Pollard didn’t detract from his way of thinking.
“We have four core principles to our culture, and probably the most important is to have intentional gratitude,†Pollard told reporters that night in Durham. “We talk all the time about the importance of being grateful. And when you’re intentional about gratitude, you’ve got to be grateful for all of it. The good and the bad. You can’t cherry-pick what you’re grateful for and so my message to our guys and to the entire Duke baseball family is we’re going to look at [the loss] with nothing but gratitude because if you think about what today has done is it’s given us a very unique opportunity.
“It’s given us another day together as a team and to fight and compete as a group,†he continued. “We could’ve just been sitting around, but instead we get to play in a winner-take-all [game] to go to the College World Series on our field.â€
And that’s Pollard’s real, authentic outlook and attitude, according to Davis and former Duke pitcher Jason White.
“The way he preps you off the field translates on the field,†said White, now the pitching coach at Division II Carson-Newman University, about Pollard. “Everything we talked about was about having a good process and having a growth mindset.â€
White transferred from D-II Belmont Abbey College to Duke for the 2023 season, and he said in the fall ahead of that campaign, he wasn’t sure if he was good enough to pitch in the ACC.
White said he was fighting through some knee issues and that he was throwing only in the mid-80s.
“And that doesn’t usually play in the ACC,†White said, “but [Pollard] instilled confidence in me and told me I was there for a reason. There were daily reminders that helped me stay in the grind of it and that’s the biggest thing that really helped me then.â€
Come spring, White started his Blue Devils career with six straight scoreless outings. He finished the season, throwing 47 2/3 innings and he had a 5.85 ERA.
White said he was set up for success by Pollard because Pollard understood how and when to use him to get the most out of him.
“He helped me believe in myself,†White said. “When you’re going from D-II to D-I, you don’t know if you can do it. You’ve played D-II baseball, but now you’re playing in a Power Four conference against schools I used to watch on TV and used to dream about playing against.â€
Davis, a transfer from Princeton to Duke who suited up for the Blue Devils during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, said Pollard always has a feel for his players as individuals.
“And it’s because it’s who he is as a person and because he cares about the culture that he builds,†Davis said. “He understands that even the guy who isn’t playing as much, he’s still doing things to help the team to get the team where it needs to be with the way that guy approaches practice every day, his attitude in the dugout. That guy on the end of the bench is also important to the team and Coach knows that and can connect with that guy, too.â€
No matter the standing on the depth chart for an individual or the position a player plays, everyone is going to be prepared to the same level of extent, according to Davis.
White said Pollard is always eager for practice. White said he can remember looking at the scoreboard clock at Jack Coombs Field ahead of a 2:30 p.m. practice, and Pollard would be waiting to address the team by 2:29, so they know what to expect for the day.
During fall practices and in the preseason, but even during the spring, Pollard won’t let details slip through the cracks, both White and Davis said.
“He put systems in place,†Davis said, “like on defense with popup and flyball communication, bunt defenses or first-and-third defenses, and it’s some of the best systems I’ve played under in college or professional baseball.
“When I was at Duke — And yeah, guys boot ground balls. That’s baseball. — but we didn’t do the thing where a popup goes up and guys are kind of looking at each other and it drops,†Davis said, “or guys don’t know what base to throw the ball to. That’s because Coach Pollard’s systems are in place. You drill them like crazy, so when game time comes, you do those things well. You don’t make mistakes in those areas.â€
Pollard doesn’t ever forget his players either, even after they’re done playing, White made sure to point out.
White said after his Duke career ended, he moved to Wilmington, North Carolina to work at a baseball facility and give private lessons to 8- to 14-year-old kids. He coached 8U travel ball, too, but quickly realized he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life coaching youth baseball.
He wanted a crack at college coaching.
So, Pollard, according to White, invited White to attend the 2024 American Baseball Coaches Association Convention in Dallas with the Duke staff. White said Pollard paid for the flight to get White to Dallas.
Duke was short a hotel room, though, because White didn’t know he was going until a few weeks before the event.
“So, the first night I stayed on the couch in Coach Pollard’s suite at the ABCA convention,†White said, “and I think that shows not only how much he’s willing to help you when you’re playing for him, but how much he’s willing to help you in your career and whatever you do afterward as well. I credit where I am right now to him because the guy that hired me was at that ABCA convention.â€
White, a native of Concord, North Carolina, said he grew up a lifelong Duke fan and was thrilled he got to pitch for the Blue Devils.
He said he’ll still be pulling for Pollard even though Pollard will be wearing navy and orange.
Davis agreed.
“I’m very loyal to Coach Pollard, so I’m just really, really excited for the opportunity that he’s got,†Davis said.
