Each year, the NCAA Division
I College Baseball World
Series is a showcase for the
top teams in the country.
This season, two of the
eight teams will be under
the direction of former
Cerritos College players and
coaches. George
Horton, who led the
Cal State Fullerton Titans
to the national championship
in 2004, will joined by his
former player and coaching
pupil this season. Dave
Serrano, who is in
just his third year as the
head coach at UC Irvine,
will be taking the first
Anteater team to the College
World Series in the school's
history.
The
College World Series will
begin June 15 and all games
will be televised on ESPN,
ESPN2 or ESPNU.
Both
coaches, who played for the
Falcons and coached together
at both Cerritos and Cal
State Fullerton, are the
best of friends. Both are
widely considered to be two
of the best coaches in the
country. Now, both will be
taking their own programs to
the highest level of college
baseball. From 1997-2004,
Serrano served under the
direction of Horton at Cal
State Fullerton as the
pitching coach, and when
they won the national
championship, Horton was
named the nation's Coach of
the Year, while Serrano
earned the American Baseball
Coaches Association/Baseball
America Assistant Coach of
the Year. It was after the
Titans won the national
championship that the UC
Irvine coaching job became
available and Serrano was
hired to run their program.
While at
Cerritos, Horton played on
two South Coast Conference
championship teams in
1972-73, with his sophomore
team winning the state
championship. Also, during
the 1973 season, one of his
teammates was current Falcon
head coach Ken
Gaylord. While
serving as the head coach
for Cerritos from 1985-90,
he led the Falcons to three
state championships and was
named the National Community
College Coach of the Year in
each of those seasons (1985,
1987, 1989). His career
coaching record at Cerritos
was 226-53. As for Serrano,
he was a pitcher for the
Falcons from 1984-85, while
earning All-American honors
in his sophomore season when
he went 12-1 and led the
team to the state
championship. His coaching
career with Cerritos
consisted of seven seasons
(1988-94), with the team
winning the state title in
1989 and six South Coast
Conference championships. He
stepped in as the team's
interim head coach in 1991
and led them to the
conference title and was the
Coach of the Year.
