Not a fan of how Chris Pollard, who just wrapped his first year as the head coach at Virginia, defended himself over his ejection from Friday’s loss to Jacksonville State, then threw his two guys who were bounced from the win over Southern Miss on Saturday under the bus.
“I will start today with an apology to the Southern Miss program, to their fans, to the administration. Great baseball fans, the administration has run an awesome event. I have a world of respect for Coach (Christian) Ostrander. I’m embarrassed that we had two players kicked out of the game for losing their composure,” Pollard said after the 15-11 win, which was marred by back-and-forth that seemed to get ignited when the Southern Miss side engaged in a pair of provocative home-run celebrations early on.
ICYMI
It’s one thing to put a homer chain or sombrero or whatnot on a guy for going deep; the entirety of the roster leaving the dugout and assembling like they’re posing for a trophy celebration snap is next-level dick-ery.
Seriously, the next batter should be wearing a fastball to the ribs after that bulls–t.
Against that backdrop, John Paone, the #3 starter pressed into service out of the pen in the elimination game, marking an inning-ending strikeout with an expletive, and Kyle Johnson, punctuating a two-run homer in the 10th that gave UVA a four-run lead, with an expletive, no, not good, but … ejection-worthy?
“We talked about in our pregame meeting at the hotel that this would be an emotionally charged atmosphere, and we needed to not play with emotion, not get caught up in the emotion,” Pollard said in his postgame chat with reporters, clearly addressing not even the reporters in the room, but the Southern Miss side, and the NCAA.
“There are two great young men. I’ve known both of them for a really long time. I’ve coached both of them now for multiple years. I know their families. They’re good people, but they did get caught up in the emotion of the moment. And Coach Ostrander and his guys do everything first-class. They didn’t deserve that,” Pollard said.
First-class, sure – aside from those dick-ish home-run celebrations that Pollard seemed to have no problem with, even as his guys clearly did.
***
Pollard himself was ejected in the seventh inning in the 15-7 loss to Jax State on Friday night, for arguing a call by third-base umpire Mike Fichter, related to a pickoff play at second base.
“We ran an inside move to second base, right? It was a possible steal, possible bunt situation, so we ran an inside move there, just like we had done multiple times early in the game, just like we’ve done probably in the neighborhood of 75 to 100 times over the course of this season. The exact same play that we had run earlier in the game, at least two other times,” Pollard said.
ICYMI
“The umpire at third called time, called it an illegal pick and said it was a violation. I started walking out to get clarification, and he said I couldn’t come out. Of course I can come out and ask what he saw and why he made that call, particularly since we’d run the same play earlier in the game without that being called against us,” Pollard said. “As I walked out, I said, Hey, we haven’t had that called against us all year, right? I think what he was trying to call there was that it wasn’t a real attempt at a pick. So, after I said, Hey, we haven’t had that called against us all year. He said, Your guy shuffled towards second base.
“We teach our guys to shuffle to second base, and the reason we teach them to shuffle to second base in an inside move is because if you start the inside move, right, you separate your hands, and you start to make the throw to second, and that runner’s going first movement and he’s running to third, you’re not in a position to make the play at third. So, we teach our guys when you cross over the rubber, reset your feet into a shuffle, and that way if that guy breaks first movement for third base, you’re able to pause and execute the throw to third. So, after he said, Well, he shuffled towards second base like it wasn’t a real pick, I said, we haven’t had that called against us all year. He started to turn and walk back to his position.
“I started to turn. I said, That’s terrible. Next thing I know, I was thrown out of the ballgame,” Pollard said.
“It seems completely unreasonable to me,” Pollard said. “I’m flabbergasted. Is that really what the NCAA wants to do in that situation? We ran a legal play that hadn’t been called against us all year. We have literally run that play close to 100 times without that call being made. I went out there for clarification. There was zero confrontation. There was zero profanity. There was zero effort to show him up. And I simply made the point that nobody else has made that call against us. And I found myself thrown out of an NCAA regional game. It’s absurd. Absurd.”
Equally absurd: it was 10-5 bad guys at the time of Pollard’s ejection.
Jax State scored three in the seventh to get the lead to 13-5, on the way to the blowout win.
Pollard may not have used profanity, but he kept pressing an issue after the umpire said there was no more room for discussion.
The ejection sure felt like a guy who admitted later that he hadn’t gotten his team prepared for a playoff game wanting to get rung.
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Chris Graham
