A.J. Pollock Class: Sophomore Hometown: Hebron, CT High School: RHAM Height / Weight: 6-1 / 200 Position: Infielder/Outfielder Birthdate: 12/05/1987 Bats/Throws: R/R

Tremendous athlete who was all-BIG EAST third baseman in '07 but also could play in center or right field during '08 ... versatile defensive player with great hands, strong arm and classic fielding instincts ... clutch performer who can hit for power, with linedrive swing and quick bat ... one of team's fastest baserunners, also making good breaks on ball in outfield ... looking to use his speed better and drive the ball more in '08 ... named second team all-New England Collegiate Baseball League in summer of '07, as centerfielder for wood-bat Vermont Mountaineers ... led Mountaineers in batting avg. (.348; 4th in league), doubles (15; league-best), hits (47), runs (29; 5th in league) and stolen bases (13-of-14) while ranking second in slugging pct. (.481), third in RBI (2) and on-base pct. (.419), and fourth in walks (17) ... also had a home run, eight Ks and four errors in 37 games (35 starts) ... helped Mountaineers win NECBL tournament (11-8, 3- 0 final series vs. Newport Gulls) ... a .471 career hitter in the Blue-Gold intrasquad series (8--for-17, 7 RBI, 7 R, HR, 2 2B, 3 BB, 4 SB, SAC, K) ... played center field for much of '07 fall practice, including in the BGS with Blue team (3-for-8, 2 RBI, 4 R, 2B, 3 BB, 2 SB) ... named MVP of '06 BGS, with victorious Gold (5-for-9, 5 RBI, 3 R, HR, 2B, sac. bunt, 2-2 SB, K, 0 Es; 2-run blast in clinching game-3, 8-3) ... one of 17 all-time ND baseball monogram winners from Connecticut, among them P/OF Jean Dubuc (Waterbury) - a member of the 1918 Boston Red Sox (World Series champs) - and RHP Chuck Symeon (Stamford/St. Basil's Prep), who shut out Texas in the '57 College World Series, plus recent record-setting RHP Alan Walania (Derby/Notre Dame HS) ... inherited #4 jersey worn previously by SS Greg Lopez ... could face several Vermont Mountaineers teammates in '07 (Georgetown's Mike Gaggiola, Cary Piligian and Alex Meyer; Justin Gutsie of St. John's; and Maine's Curt Smith, AJ Balsinde and Billy Cather) ... also played alongside SJU's Brian Kemp in NECBL allstar game ... could face former American Legion allstar teammate Erick Campbell (Boston College) in '08 season while four of his former Connecticut Bombers/Ropes teammates play in the BIG EAST at UConn (Will Musson, Pierre Lepage, Greg Nappo and Doug Elliot) ... entered 2008 spring semester with 3.07 cumulative GPA (3.53 in '07 fall term).

AS A FRESHMAN: Capped stellar debut season by earning third team all-BIG EAST honors and being named a '07 Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball and PingBaseball.com ... fourth freshman ever to lead ND in batting avg. (.372), third-best ever by an Irish freshman and best since Scott Sollmann hit .404 in his '94 rookie season (Eric Danapilis hit .429 as a freshman in '90) ... other freshmen to lead ND in batting include Danapilis, Lilley (.355; '05) and Pete Schmidt (.367; '71) ... finished fourth on BIG EAST batting charts, trailing only senior outfielders Dave Williams (Rutgers) and Isaiah Howes (Louisville) and RU junior All-America shortstop Todd Frazier ... joined Louisville All-America CF Boomer Whiting as only players in BIG EAST with 70-plus hits (73), 30-plus walks (32), double-digit stolen bases (11) and 10-plus sac. bunts (10) ... finished first (10) or second (8) on '07 Irish in 18 categories - including team-best batting, walks, SBs, total bases (93), hits (73, tied with Lilley) and multi-hit games (26), while ranking second in slugging (.474), on-base (.464), runs (39) and sac. bunts ... led team in batting vs. LHPs (.509) and with runners on base (.422)/in scoring position (.406) ... his .308 batting with 2-outs was second-best on team (tied for team-high in 2-out RBI, with 11) ... finished second on '07 team in OPS (.938 on-base plus slugging), batting vs. RHPs (.322) and pct. of runners advanced (61%), third in home runs (3), triples (2) and multi-RBI games (8), fourth in RBI (28), and fifth in doubles (7), HBPs (3) and leadoff on-base pct. (.333) ... his +17 plate-discipline ratio (32 BB+ 3 HBP-18 Ks) trailed only Lilley's +30 ... compiled .904 fielding pct., with 19 errors (no Es over final 10 GP) ... ranked among BIG EAST top-10 in overall batting (4th), OB (7th), BB (9th) and sac. bunts (10th), also fourth in league batting avg.(.386), third in hits (39) and sixth in OB (.457) during conference action (his other stats in BE games: 17 R, 14 RBI, HR, 3B, 7 2B, 13 BB, HBP, 11 Ks, 4 SAC, 4-6 SB) ... joined Louisville LHP Justin Marks and SJU LF Kemp as only freshmen named all-BIG EAST ... 10th ND freshman ever tabbed all-BIG EAST (Lilley and Brant Ust are only other leftside infielders) ... made 47 of 52 starts at third base, plus five early starts at first (March 3-12) ... hit 45 times in 2-hole, with handful of starts as #3 (2), #6 (3) and #7 (2) batter ... he and Lilley (.371) were one of league's top hitting duos and made ND only team with both leftside infielders on all-BIG EAST team ... hit team-best .484 in first inning (15-for-31, 8 R, 2 RBI, 2 2B, 8 BB, K, 7 SAC) and team-leading .500 in third (15-30, 10 R, 4 RBI, HR, 3B, 2 2B, 5 BB, 2 SAC, GDP) ... batted .308 in Feb./March, .328 in April, team-best .400 in May ... hit 110 points higher at home (.426, 24 R, 17 RBI, 16 BB, 2 HR, 3B, 5 2B, 2 HBP, 11 Ks, 4 SAC, 5-6 SB, 10 Es, 26 GP) than in all road games (.316) ... hit team's first home run of season (in opener vs. Prairie View, in San Antonio) and added a single in second AB, but then had five-game hit slump ... ended slump by batting 3-for-4 (RBI, 3 R, BB) in 17-6 win over #7 Nebraska (at Stetson) ... his top Spring Break games: 3-for-4 vs. Duquesne (3 RBI, 2 R, SAC, SF; 14-3; in Clearwater) and 4-for-9 in pair of wins over Dayton (2 RBI, 3 R, BB, 2 SB; 11-4/5-2, at Florida Gulf Coast) ... fifth ND freshman ever to post five-hit game (5-for-6 vs. Western Michigan; 2 RBI, 2 R, solo HR; 17-9), with others to do so including Lilley ('05), current fifth-year catcher Sean Gaston ('04), Scott Sollmann ('94) and 1B Joe Binkiewicz ('89) ... went a month (and later seven weeks) without back-to-back hitless games ... had slow .242 start in BIG EAST play (4-for-13 in USF series, 2-for-7 at Pittsburgh, 2-for-13 at Cincinnati) but sizzled over final six series - batting .456 (31-for-68) in that 18- game span, vs. Georgetown (5-12, RBI, 2 R, 2B, BB, SAC), West Virginia (6-11, 6 RBI, 5 R, HR, 2 2B, 4 BB, SB), Rutgers (5-12, 2 RBI, 2 R, 2 2B, BB, SB), Seton Hall (6-12, 4 R, BB, SB), Louisville (3-8, RBI, 3 BB) and UConn (6-13, 2 RBI, 3 R, 3B, 2 2B) ... had no doubles in first 31 games but seven over final 25 GP (plus ninegame hit streak; April 28-May 12) ... his strong series against WVU and midweek games vs. Toledo and Purdue earned spot on BIG EAST weekly honor roll for April 16-22 (8-for-19, 6 RBI, 7 R, HR, 2 2B, SB) ... helped Irish rally from 5-0 deficit to edge Toledo, 8-7 (2-for-4, 2 R, BB) ... hit 3-for-3 with 6 RBI in 17-6 win over WVU (3 R, 3-run HR, 2B, 3 BB) ... made timely plays in 15-3 opener at Rutgers (2-for-5, 2 RBI, R, 2B, SAC) and thrilling 6-4 comeback in series finale (2-for-3, R, 2B, BB, SB) ... went 3-for-4 in 6-4 win over SHU (2 R, SB) and closed regular season vs. UConn with two of his eight 3-hit games, including 5-4 win that clinched postseason spot (3-for-4, RBI, 2 R, 3B) ... posted his first game with two doubles, in regular-season finale vs. UConn (3-for-5, RBI, R).

PREP & PERSONAL: Capped stellar career as four-year starting shortstop at RHAM HS by receiving most votes ever for Gatorade player of the year in Connecticut (since '74) ... tabbed by coaches association for '06 state player of the year, after batting .462 as team captain (4 HR, 27 RBI, 34 R, 15 SB; also 9 IP, 1.62 ERA, 17 Ks) ... also named RHAM 2006 athlete of the year, team MVP and all-conference (played in senior all-star game and Conn.-Mass. all-star game) ... led team to conference titles in final three seasons ... qualified for '05 Team One National Showcase (Las Vegas) ... all-conference and all-state as a junior (.386, 15 RBI, 22 R, HR, 2 3B, 6 2B, 10 BB, 4 Ks, 6 SB, 20 GP) ... all-conference on '04 team that won regional and state titles (.489, 18 R, 3 3B, 4 2B, 8 RBI, 6 BB, 2 Ks, 16 GP) ... team defensive player of the year in '03, '04 and '05 ... first RHAM freshman ever to start at shortstop (.317, 12 RBI, 2B, 9 R, 3 BB, K, 3 SB, 19 GP) ... '05 American Legion all-star and winner of Zone 7 Sportsmanship Award, after batting .464 with 31 RBI in 43 wood-bat games (4 HR, 4 3B, 18 2B, 28 R, 20 BB, 8 Ks, 32 SB) ... '04 American Legion all-star (.472, 17 RBI, 3 3B, 12 2B, 44 R, 18 BB, 3 Ks, 23 SB, 44 GP, 34-10 record) ... youngest player selected for '03 American Legion "Futures" all-stars (.418, 23 RBI, 46 GP, 3B, 9 2B, 26 R, 8 BB, 2 Ks, 17 SB) ... made top-10 list at '05 Team One East Showcase ... four-year starting guard in basketball ... played varsity soccer as freshman ... member of National Honor Society... received academic achievement awards ... plays the guitar ... volunteered at '03-'05 Winter Special Olympics, '04 Summer Special Olympics ... father Allen Pollock played rugby at Boston College ... born Dec. 5, 1987 ... son of Allen and Karen Pollock ... full name is Allen Lorenz Pollock ... sociology major, in College of Arts and Letters.