SAN DIEGO – San Diego State head softball coach Stacey Nuveman Deniz announced another addition from the transfer portal on Monday, sophomore infielder Kaila Pollard. A Riverside, California, native, Pollard spent last season at Oregon, where she redshirted after playing at Florida during her freshman season in 2023.
“Kaila Pollard is a big-time player and bringing her home to Southern California is a huge pickup for our program,” said coach Nuveman Deniz on her new acquisition. “She is an outstanding athlete and an elite offensive talent and will make a major impact in an Aztec uniform for years to come.”
During her time as a Gator, Pollard started 24 of her 37 appearances including starting all four games in the Stanford Regional, hitting .261 with seven doubles, three homers and 17 runs batted in on the year. She had multiple base knocks twice and drove in multiple runs on five occasions. One of the highlights of her season was a game-tying home run against Kentucky in what would be a 6-2 win. Pollard will reunite with former Florida teammate Olivia Gigante, who is also joining the Aztecs from the transfer portal this season.
The infielder prepped at Martin Luther King High in Riverside. At the conclusion of her Wolfpack career, Pollard was ranked as the No. 3 recruit in the nation by Extra Innings Sports and the No. 2 shortstop by Extra Innings and MaxPreps. She garnered her school’s Offensive Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year in 2019 while also landing on the Inland Sports All-Area Team. Playing her club ball with Athletics Mercado, she led her squad to a Colorado Sparkler title and an Alliance Tier 1 national title in 2021 while hitting .420 with a 1.289 OPS. Pollard helped her team to another Colorado Sparkler championship the next season while being named an Alliance All-Star.
San Diego State opens the season on February 6 against CSUN and Oklahoma at SDSU Softball Stadium.