Serrano named ‘Eaters baseball coach

Steve Virgen

Dave Serrano, who was the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator

at Cal State Fullerton for the past eight years, will be introduced

as UC Irvine’s new baseball coach today at a press conference at the

Bren Events Center.

Serrano replaces John Savage. Just 11 days ago, UCI lost Savage,

who was hired away by UCLA.

Serrano said he was not able to make any comments of his hiring to

the media until the press conference, as advised by UC Irvine. He

said he spent Sunday packing up his belongings at Cal State Fullerton

and calling players on the UCI team to introduce himself.

Cal State Fullerton Coach George Horton knew Serrano was ready to

take a head coaching job, and said UCI made a great hire.

“I’m very proud and happy that Dave has been given this

opportunity,” Horton said. “He’s going to do a fabulous job. I know

he’s going to do great. He’s going to be a lot to deal with in the

Big West. We got one of our limbs cut off, but we hope to find

someone to replace it. But it will be hard. We’re going to miss him.”

Serrano, 39, was instrumental in the Titans’ drive to the NCAA

championship last month in Omaha. This will be his first time being

an NCAA Division I head coach. During his tenure at Fullerton, 24

Titan pitchers were drafted. Six of his Fullerton products (Matt

Wise, Adam Johnson, Brandon Duckworth, Kirk Saarloos, Erasmo Ramirez

and Chad Codero) have reached the Majors.

Serrano’s staffs have led the Big West Conference in ERA in five

of his eight seasons and have ranked among the nation’s top-25 in ERA

in each of the last five seasons (17th in 2000, 14th in 2001, 24th in

2002, third in 2003 and 22nd in 2004). In 2003, Serrano helped mold a

deep staff that compiled a 2.87 ERA, which was the first sub-3.00 ERA

at Fullerton in 25 years.

He takes over an Anteater squad that went 34-18-1 this past spring

and earned its first berth in an NCAA Division I regional. UCI, which

tied for fourth in the Big West, lost to Arizona and Notre Dame in

its first two regional games in South Bend, Ind. and was eliminated.

The UCI baseball team will be in its fourth season since reviving

its program after a 10-year hiatus.

Serrano played for Horton at Cerritos College, where Serrano

earned junior college All-American honors while helping the Falcons

go 39-5 and win the state championship in 1985. Serrano compiled a

12-1 record. He played for Cal State Fullerton in 1986, making 15

appearances, which included a 3-4 record and one save.

Serrano was an assistant to Horton at Cerritos College from

1988-90 and then Horton went to the Titans to become an assistant to

Augie Garrido in 1991. Serrano remained at Cerritos through the 1994

season. In his seven years with Cerritos, the Falcons won a state

championship in 1989, as well as six conference titles, including

1991, when Serrano was the head coach and earned South Coast

Conference Coach of the Year honors.

In Serrano’s 10 years of coaching at the Division I level, he has

been to the College World Series five times with two different

programs. He was the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator in

1995 and 1996 at the University of Tennessee. He helped the

Volunteers reach the College World Series in 1995, the first time

they had visited Omaha in 44 years.