BOONE, N.C. - Appalachian State University baseball head coach Chris Pollard has signed a three-year contract extension, director of athletics Charlie Cobb announced on Tuesday. Pollard, who had one year remaining on his contract, is now signed through the 2014 season.

"We're very happy to ensure that Coach Pollard will continue to lead our baseball program through 2014," Cobb said. "In his six years at ASU, Coach Pollard has done a tremendous job of building the program into a perennial contender and has it on the cusp of a return to postseason play. At the same time, he recruits and leads student-athletes that are terrific representatives of the University on and off the field."

In his six years at the helm of the Mountaineers, Pollard has engineered the program's turnaround from back-to-back 10-win seasons to its current string of four-straight 30-win campaigns.

This past season, Pollard turned in one of the nation's finest coaching efforts when he led Appalachian to the second-highest win total in school history with a 38-18-1 campaign. After losing seven players in two years to the Major League Baseball Draft, Pollard's club jumped out to the best start in program history at 10-0 and was one of the final four remaining undefeated teams in NCAA Division I when it finally lost its first game of the year nearly a month into the season. ASU's RPI climbed to as high as No. 7 nationally and the Mountaineers capped the season with three victories at the 2010 Southern Conference Tournament, falling just one win shy of playing for its first NCAA Tournament berth in 24 years.

Pollard has compiled a 170-165-2 record in six season's as ASU's head coach. His 170 wins are the second-most by any coach in ASU's 107-year baseball history while his .507 winning percentage ranks third.

HELMS NAMED SCBL'S TOP PITCHER: Junior southpaw Will Helms (Charlotte, N.C./Providence) capped a successful 2010 by being named the Southern Collegiate Baseball League's Most Valuable Pitcher on Monday.

Helms went 5-0 with a 2.44 ERA in 11 outings to help lead the Lake Norman Copperheads to a SCBL championship this summer. He struck out 38 and walked only eight in 51.2 innings of work, limiting opposing hitters to a .236 average.

In addition to the SCBL MVP honor, Helms was also named to the National Alliance of Collegiate Summer Baseball all-star team. Officially sanctioned by Major League Baseball, the NACSB comprises eight collegiate summer leagues in the eastern United States, including the nationally reputed Cape Cod League.

Helms also went 5-0 with the Mountaineers last spring, serving primarily as the set-up man for all-conference closer Chris Patterson. He surrendered one earned run or less in 26 of his 30 appearances for ASU in 2010, posting a 3.86 ERA and .259 opposing batting average.

2011 SCHEDULE INCLUDES THREE-GAME SERIES AT MIAMI (FLA.): Appalachian's 2011 schedule includes a three-game series at perennial national power Miami (Fla.), Pollard has announced.

Appalachian will take on the Hurricanes at Miami's Alex Rodriguez Stadium on Feb. 24, 25 and 26. ASU has squared off with the 23-time College World Series participants just once previously, a 13-6 loss that eliminated the Mountaineers from the 1973 NCAA District III playoffs in Starkville, Miss.

The Mountaineers' entire 2011 schedule, which includes 26 games at ASU's Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium and four additional contests at neutral sites in western North Carolina, will be announced in the near future.