CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) In 2013, Chris Pollard brought his first Duke baseball team to UVA for a series against the Cavaliers.

Virginia swept all three contests, winning by a combined margin of 37-19.

Two years later, Pollard and the Blue Devils were back in Charlottesville for another three-game set against Brian O’Connor’s club.

“I literally had a notepad and a pen in my hands and said, ‘I’m going to learn everything I can from this program and this man,’” Pollard said. “I just started taking notes.”

Wednesday, Pollard was at Disharoon Park again, this time as O’Connor’s successor.

Athletic director Carla Williams introduced Pollard at a press conference, to the applause of a room full of some of the program’s biggest backers, calling him “an exceptional leader” and “a proven winner.”

“Coach Pollard is the perfect person to lead our baseball program into this new era,” Williams said.

Pollard, who led Duke to seven NCAA tournaments and four Super Regional appearances in his 13 seasons in Durham, N.C., told the crowd that it was a “homecoming.” Pollard grew up in Amherst County, the son of a postal worker who spent 33 years in that job all around central Virginia.

Pollard was a UVA basketball fan as a kid, cheering for Terry Holland’s team. Pollard went on to play baseball at Davidson, where Holland was – at that time – the athletic director.

That’s also where he met his wife, Stephanie, who he’s been married to for 25 years. She was on hand Wednesday, along with Pollard’s two sons and his parents.

Pollard said he reached out to O’Connor last month, when O’Connor left UVA after 22 seasons to take over at Mississippi State. On the bus ride home from winning the Athens (Ga.) Regional, Pollard texted and congratulated O’Connor on the move and the two men pledged to connect soon.

“Then, when the news broke Tuesday, he shot me the same text,” Pollard said.

What did Pollard learn back in 2015, when he took copious notes of his observations about O’Connor’s program? What stood out that made UVA a winner, a team that made seven College World Series appearances in Omaha, Neb., and won the 2015 national championship under O’Connor?

“The biggest takeaway from competing against the University of Virginia … is just the attention to detail,” Pollard said. “We call it an Omaha standard attention to detail. Everything matters.”

At Virginia, Pollard said he’ll have the resources to compete for ACC titles and the chance to host Super Regionals.

“Positioned amongst the very best in the ACC,” Pollard said. “I don’t know that I could have felt comfortable taken the job if it hadn’t been.”

Williams said UVA baseball will be up to 25 scholarships for the upcoming season.

Asked about losing O’Connor on the heels of basketball coach Tony Bennett’s stunning retirement decision in October and four years after Bronco Mendenhall’s surprise resignation as football coach, Williams said hires like Pollard’s show high-level coaches do want to be at UVA.

“I think you have to look at the circumstances and the landscape,” Williams said. “What is happening right now over the last, I’d say, three to four years in college athletics, has never happened before. So, change, for us, we see it as opportunity. … I’m grateful for the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing university and hire people like Chris Pollard and Ryan Odom. You just go down the list. Being able to invite people into what we think is a very special place and a very challenging environment is pretty cool, actually.”

Pollard, who brought his entire Duke staff with him to Charlottesville, said taking over for O’Connor at the school Pollard grew up rooting for is both exciting and emotional.

“It’s a full circle moment for me, for sure,” Pollard said.