College World Series

Mike Gillespie said plainly that he would embrace the Anteater, and UC Irvine players, administrators, his colleagues and community members did the same to the school’s newly named baseball coach. A gathering of more than 100 filled Newkirk Pavilion at Anteater Ballpark Tuesday, when Gillespie, known most for his 20 highly successful years as baseball coach at USC, was introduced as the Anteaters’ third coach in seven seasons. Gillespie, who guided USC to 15 postseason appearances, four trips to the College World Series and the national championship in 1998, when he was named National Coach of the Year, said he was grateful for the opportunity to assume control of a program already among the nation’s elite.

It was only a few months ago that Dave Serrano, as coach of the UC Irvine baseball team that advanced to the College World Series, was making Anteaters supporters pinch themselves. Friday, however, it was Serrano, after accepting what he termed his dream job at Cal State Fullerton, who was pinching himself, while simultaneously leaving UCI in a pinch. Changing jobs is something that usually always involves awkward moments, and this was no exception. But Serrano could have eliminated a lot of ill will at Irvine by handling the situation better.

Nine days after his program capped a storybook season that culminated in it's debut appearance in the College World Series, UC Irvine baseball coach Dave Serrano said Friday that the offseason is still merely a concept. "It has been a whirlwind," Serrano said of the aftermath of a historic campaign in which the Anteaters (47-17-1) won the program's first Division I Regional, Super Regional, and finished tied for third in Omaha, where their two dramatic extra-inning victories thrilled a national television audience and, as Serrano has said, put UCI baseball on the map. "It has been crazy busy, but I wouldn't want it any other way," said Serrano, who has set about plans for his fourth year at the helm with his trademark enthusiasm.

UC Irvine baseball coach Dave Serrano, in his fourth season, has guided the Anteaters to unprecedented heights in 2007, capped by the program's first NCAA Regional title obtained Monday with its second straight win over storied Texas. Serrano has taken the ball from predecessor John Savage, who guided UCLA to a regional title Sunday, and run within two wins of the College World Series. The Anteaters, coming off the program's first trip to a Division I regional in Savage's final season in 2004, were denied a postseason berth after finishing 31-25, 10-11 in the Big West Conference, in 2005.

Mike Gillespie knows what it’s like to have Ted Silva competing against him. The most memorable of those instances came in the College World Series championship game in 1995, when Silva pitched Cal State Fullerton to an 11-5 victory over Gillespie’s USC squad. So, when Gillespie was named to take over the UC Irvine baseball program in September, he lured Silva away from Fresno State to guide his pitching staff. The results have been impressive, as the Anteaters have posted a team earned-run average of 2.88, second best in the nation, heading into the best-of-three Super Regional series that begins today at LSU’s Alex Box Stadium.

Mike Mayne said he failed to fully understand the compulsion he felt to return to the dugout, mere moments after Fresno State Coach Mike Batesole gave him days to ponder an offer to become the Bulldogs’ pitching coach nine months ago. Mayne, 62, who invested 15 of the 35 years he spent coaching the game he loved guiding Orange Coast College to 400 wins and the 1980 state title (1977-92), said he was similarly stumped by the confluence of circumstances that enabled Fresno State (42-19)

The No. 8-ranked UC Irvine baseball team takes a four-game winning streak into a three-game Big West Conference road series at No. 1-ranked Cal State Fullerton, beginning tonight at 7. Coach Mike Gillespie’s Anteaters (16-8, 3-0 and tied for first in conference with Pacific), are averaging 11.6 runs while going 6-1 in their last seven games. UCI is paced by senior third baseman Eric Deragisch, who is hitting .403 with one home run and 14 RBIs. He is 13 for 27 with 10 RBIs in his last six games and has a 10-game hitting streak.

UC Irvine junior pitcher Scott Gorgen’s one-hitter against San Francisco Friday was picked as the West Region Performance of the Week Award from InsidePitching.com. He was also named CollegeBaseballInsider.com’s National Player of the Week Gorgen recorded a career-high 12 strikeouts against USF, surrendering the lone single in the third inning after fanning five of the first six Dons he faced. Gorgen, a third-team All-American as a sophomore, then retired the next 19 straight and faced just two over the minimum to record his seventh career complete-game and fourth complete-game shutout.

It is, of course, ironic that arguably the most revered player in UC Irvine baseball history woke up Monday a suddenly devoted, if somewhat conflicted, Cal State Fullerton fan. Ben Orloff, the face of what has become a nationally renowned program since he arrived from Simi Valley High in the fall of 2004, did not shed a tear before the assembled media after the Anteaters, the consensus No. 1 team in the nation the previous three weeks, saw their...