Dave Serrano

Former UC Irvine baseball coach Dave Serrano said Wednesday he regrets some of the circumstances surrounding his leaving UCI to become coach at Cal State Fullerton last week. In an e-mail, Serrano responded to a column by Barry Faulkner that appeared in Tuesday’s edition. The column was critical of Serrano for taking the Fullerton job a week after stating he had no interest in the position and would remain at UCI. The following is an e-mail from Serrano: “I absolutely do regret and apologize for misleading anyone associated with UCI, first and foremost my players.

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UC Irvine baseball coach Mike Gillespie, who signed a three-year contract when taking the job before the 2008 season, has received a two-year extension through the 2012 season, UCI Athletic Director Mike Izzi said. Gillespie, who guided USC to the 1998 national championship and 15 postseason appearances in 20 season as the Trojans head coach, led the Anteaters to the program’s first Big West Conference crown and its first No. 1 national ranking in 2009. The Anteaters were 45-15, including a 22-2 conference record.

Mike Gillespie is still awaiting approval of his contract terms before officially beginning his term as UC Irvine baseball coach. Gillespie, who last week accepted the school’s offer to replace Dave Serrano, who left for Cal State Fullerton, still hopes to be cleared in time to oversee the start of practice Thursday. But as of Tuesday, the school had not received word from University of California headquarters in Oakland, where officials are required to approve contracts that exceed a certain monetary threshold.

The UC Irvine baseball team reached territory it hadn't seen in 27 years when Collegiate Baseball tabbed the squad 36th among the publication's "Fabulous 40" preseason poll. It is the first time the Anteaters have been ranked in a preseason poll since UCI joined Division I for the 1977-78 season. UCI relief pitcher Blair Erickson earned individual recognition when he was tabbed "Louisville Slugger" preseason third-team All-America by Collegiate Baseball.

Barry Faulkner As expected, UC Irvine failed to earn a berth in the NCAA Division I baseball regionals, an occurrence first-year coach Dave Serrano vows will be the exception to the rule for the Anteaters. "This program has everything it needs to be in the regionals and we should be in the regionals," said Serrano, whose squad went 31-25, 10-11 in the Big West Conference, where it finished fifth. "I will feel like a failure in my coaching career unless I have this program in the regionals each and every year.

Though the rivalry could never be completely dampened, rain washed out the schedule opener of a three-game Big West Conference baseball series between UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton on Friday night. The two teams plan to resume their rivalry Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. at Anteater Ballpark. The second game, scheduled for approximately 4:30 p.m. will honor tickets for Friday's game. The park will be cleared after Saturday's first game, so separate admissions will be charged.

UC Irvine baseball coach Dave Serrano said Friday he will fly to Eugene, Ore. Monday to discuss the possibility of becoming the University of Oregon baseball coach. Serrano, named 2007 Coach of the Year by Baseball America after leading the Anteaters to the College World Series in his third season at the helm, said he reconsidered his earlier decision to thwart efforts by Oregon Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny to interest him in the position. "I was approached about three weeks ago by Oregon and their athletic director flew down here to meet with me," Serrano said.

Though the rivalry could never be completely dampened, rain washed out the schedule opener of a three-game Big West Conference baseball series between UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton on Friday night. The two teams plan to resume their rivalry Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. at Anteater Ballpark. The second game, scheduled for approximately 4:30 p.m. will honor tickets for Friday's game. The park will be cleared after Saturday's first game, so separate admissions will be charged.

UC Irvine baseball coach Mike Gillespie, who signed a three-year contract when taking the job before the 2008 season, has received a two-year extension through the 2012 season, UCI Athletic Director Mike Izzi said. Gillespie, who guided USC to the 1998 national championship and 15 postseason appearances in 20 season as the Trojans head coach, led the Anteaters to the program’s first Big West Conference crown and its first No. 1 national ranking in 2009. The Anteaters were 45-15, including a 22-2 conference record.

The folks at Rosenblatt Stadium like to call the College World Series the Greatest Show on Dirt. The NCAA baseball regional being contested this weekend at UC Irvine’s Anteater Ballpark, may have a claim as the Show on the Greatest Dirt. The playing surface at the 3,200-seat home of the nation’s No. 1-ranked team has also earned elite status, according to those who know it best, the UCI players and coaches. “Our surface is better than any field we play on,” UCI senior shortstop Ben Orloff said.

The veteran core of the UC Irvine baseball team knows what it’s like to get to Omaha and experience the College World Series. Just as importantly, they also know what it’s like to come up tantalizingly short of their game’s ultimate destination. “Three outs away” is a mantra that consumed many Anteaters fans in the recent off-season, after UCI took a 7-4 lead into the ninth inning of a would-be-clinching Super Regional game at LSU last season, only to see the Tigers rally for a 9-7 win. LSU then sent the ’Eaters packing with a 21-7 trouncing in the decisive third game to advance to Omaha.

The ink circles on calendars and schedules have long dried, some raw nerves have calmed and some of the emotion expected to carry over into the Big West Conference baseball series between Cal State Fullerton and host UC Irvine has been diffused. But even so, few are denying that the return of Dave Serrano to Anteater Ballpark sets the stage for high drama between the two Orange County and conference rivals, who begin a three-game set tonight. Serrano guided UCI to its first College World Series last season, then accepted the head coaching job with the Titans, for whom he played and was an assistant coach.

1 UC Irvine baseball: Six seasons after resurrecting a program that had been dormant for nine seasons, the Anteaters tied for third at the College World Series in Omaha. Before, the team had not won a Division I postseason game in four tries. They finished the regular season tied for second in the Big West Conference, before winning the Round Rock Regional hosted by the University of Texas, then winning a best-of-three Super Regional at Wichita State. UCI’s four games in Omaha included a 13-inning marathon victory to eliminate Cal State Fullerton — the longest game in CWS history — and another dramatic 10-inning triumph that eliminated Arizona State the next day. The list of heroes read like a lineup card as pitchers Scott Gorgen (third-team All-American)

The announcement, made by the Cal State Fullerton media relations department Sept. 7, hit the UC Irvine baseball program and its supporters like a fastball to the eye socket. For, like the unprecedented postseason run that had just thrust UCI onto the national sports landscape, nobody saw this one coming. Just seven days prior to being named baseball coach at Cal State Fullerton, where he had both played and coached, former UCI head man Dave Serrano had issued a statement disavowing any interest in replacing his mentor and friend, George Horton, who had left Fullerton for a big paycheck and a blank canvas at the University of Oregon.

Mike Gillespie is still awaiting approval of his contract terms before officially beginning his term as UC Irvine baseball coach. Gillespie, who last week accepted the school’s offer to replace Dave Serrano, who left for Cal State Fullerton, still hopes to be cleared in time to oversee the start of practice Thursday. But as of Tuesday, the school had not received word from University of California headquarters in Oakland, where officials are required to approve contracts that exceed a certain monetary threshold.

Former UC Irvine athletic director Dan Guerrero left for Westwood, as did former baseball coach John Savage and former senior women’s administrator Petrina Long. Men’s basketball coach Pat Douglass was, at one time, rumored to be an attractive candidate to lead the storied UCLA program, and men’s volleyball head man John Speraw likely faces the question at least twice a week of when he’ll return to his alma mater to replace Bruins coach Al Scates. Then Dave Serrano exits for the Cal State Fullerton job. A school sure could get an inferiority complex, huh?

Former UC Irvine baseball coach Dave Serrano said Wednesday he regrets some of the circumstances surrounding his leaving UCI to become coach at Cal State Fullerton last week. In an e-mail, Serrano responded to a column by Barry Faulkner that appeared in Tuesday’s edition. The column was critical of Serrano for taking the Fullerton job a week after stating he had no interest in the position and would remain at UCI. The following is an e-mail from Serrano: “I absolutely do regret and apologize for misleading anyone associated with UCI, first and foremost my players.