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2001
Baseball Coaches
Dave Serrano, in his fifth season as Cal State Fullerton’s pitching coach and recruiting coordinator, has quickly established himself as one of the top assistant coaches in the country. Baseball America has called Serrano the top assistant coach on the West Coast and praised his strength as a pitching coach. In 2000, Serrano’s pitchers posted a 3.95 ERA, the 17th best mark in the nation and the first sub-4.00 ERA by a Titan team sine the 1995 College World Series championship season. Included in that group was Adam Johnson, the hard-throwing right hander who developed under Serrano’s tutelage and was selected second overall in last year’s draft. As a recruiter, he has been just as effective. Collegiate Baseball named the Titans’ incoming 2001 class as the top recruiting class in the country and Baseball America tabbed the class as the second best in the nation. Since Serrano’s arrival, each of the Titans’ recruiting classes has ranked among the top 10 nationally. Serrano, 35, in six years of coaching at the Division I level, has been to Omaha twice with two different programs. He was the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator in 1995 and 1996 at the University of Tennessee for Head Coach Rod Delmonico. He helped the Volunteers reach the College World Series in 1995, the first time they had visited Omaha in 44 years. At Fullerton in 1999, Serrano molded an assortment of question mark arms into an exclamation point staff that propelled Fullerton to its 10th Omaha bid. Serrano has coached more than two dozen pitchers who are currently playing professional baseball. At Tennessee, he produced a pair of first-round draft picks in R.A. Dickey and Todd Helton, the latter of whom has blossomed into one of the best hitters in baseball after also having pitched at Tennessee. During his watch at Fullerton, 10 pitchers have been drafted, including Matt Wise, who broke into the Major Leagues with Anaheim late last season. He has also coached 11 All-Big West Conference hurlers, including a pair of conference Pitchers of the Year (Benito Flores in 1998 and Johnson in 2000). Serrano’s staffs have led the conference in ERA in every season except 1999, when Pacific’s 4.29 ERA barely clipped Fullerton’s 4.44 mark. This is Serrano’s second go-around as an assistant to Horton. He worked with him at Cerritos College for three years (1988-90) before Horton moved to Fullerton in 1991 as an assistant to Augie Garrido. Serrano remained at Cerritos through the 1994 season. In his seven-year tenure, Cerritos won a state championship (1989) and six conference titles, including 1991, when Serrano was the Falcons’ head coach. Serrano graduated from Cerritos High School in 1982 and played two seasons at Cerritos College. He earned all-conference and JC All-American honors in his final season. Serrano then pitched for Cal State Fullerton in 1986, posting 3-4 record with one save in 15 appearances. He resides in Fullerton with his son, Kyle (5).
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