Dave Serrano will succeed George Horton as head baseball coach at Cal State Fullerton

September 7, 2007

Director of Athletics Brian Quinn today made the announcement that will bring Serrano back to Fullerton, where he was the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator for Horton and the Titans for the 1997 through 2004 seasons. He left after the Titans' fourth national championship to become head coach at UC Irvine, where he compiled a 114-66-1 (.633) record over three seasons and took the Anteaters to their first College World Series appearance in 2007. Their 47-17-1 season earned Serrano national coach of the year honors from Baseball America, which had ranked him as the nation's top assistant coach in 2004 with the Titans.

Serrano has signed a contract through the 2011 season. Horton became head coach at the University of Oregon on Saturday.

"Dave Serrano was my first choice to replace George," said Quinn. "And I had the complete blessing of the University.

"It was a terrible thing to lose George, but the best person to keep going what he has accomplished is Dave Serrano. It was the right choice for the student-athletes, the program and the community. With the new rules on practice time, there certainly was an urgency to find a new head coach."

“It’s been a whirlwind 48 hours for the Serrano family,” said Dave. “Now that I am realizing that I am the baseball coach at Cal State Fullerton and following in the legacy of Augie Garrido and Larry Cochell and George Horton, I could not be prouder.

“When it was presented to me that the opportunity at Fullerton was not going to be given to Coach (Rick) Vanderhook, then, and only then, did I start thinking I wasn’t going to let it pass. It’s great to be back. I am ready to take on the challenge.”

Serrano will be formally introduced at a reception on Monday at 2 p.m. in the Doubek Room at Goodwin Field.

During Serrano's 8-year tenure at Fullerton, the Titans went 356-154-1 (.698) and were in the NCAA Tournament every season. They won six Big West Conference championships, four NCAA Regionals and four NCAA Super Regionals to earn four trips to Omaha.

Every one of Serrano's Fullerton recruiting classes was ranked in the nation's Top 20. He also has nurtured a long list of pitchers who went on to play professinally. He tutored six conference pitchers of the year and of the 25 All-American players at Fullerton during his tenure, 15 were pitchers. He developed three more All-American pitchers at UCI.

Serrano, who pitched for the Titans in 1986, began his coaching career as an assistant to Horton at Cerritos College in 1988. He succeeded Horton for the 1991 season after he left to become associate head coach to Augie Garrido at Cal State Fullerton. Serrano returned to assistant coaching duties for 1992-94 for the Falcons before going to Tennessee, where he served two seasons as pitching coach for Rod Delmonico. The Volunteers went 97-36 and made their first trip to Omaha in 44 years in 1995, when they were twice routed by Fullerton's third national championship team.

Serrano received his bachelors degree from Trinity College and University. He and his wife, Tracy, have three sons: Kyle (12), Zachary (10) and Parker (4).

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