Cal State Fullerton Coach Jason Dietrich Joins the College Podcast

Image credit: CSUF coach Jason Dietrich (Photo courtesy of Cal State Fullerton)

On this episode of the Baseball America College Podcast, presented by Rapsodo, Teddy Cahill and Joe Healy are joined by new Cal State Fullerton coach Jason Dietrich to discuss his excitement about taking over a historic program, what he gained from the last two seasons spent at East Carolina, his history coaching under some of the great coaches in college baseball and his take on the strength of the Big West now that he’s returning to the conference after some time spent away from it.

Dietrich has extensive history as one of the best pitching coaches in the country, with stops at ECU, Oregon and UC Irvine in the last decade, but most notably, he was Fullerton’s pitching coach from 2013-2016. In those four seasons, the Titans won 160 games and three Big West titles, and they advanced to the College World Series in 2015. Along the way, his pitching staffs ranked 11th or better in the country in ERA all four years.

His task now is to return the Titans to a similar level of success after results began to lag the last several years. After breaking a long regional streak with a subpar season in 2019 and having the 2020 season wiped out due to Covid-19, the team finished ninth in the Big West with a 13-23 conference record last season. It might not necessarily be an easy or quick turnaround at Fullerton, but there’s no reason to believe a program with as much history as that one can’t once again be the class of the conference.

Among the topics discussed with Dietrich are:

What it means to be the head coach at Cal State Fullerton
Augie Garrido’s influence on the program
What he’s learned from other coaches in his career that has prepared him for this opportunity
The whirlwind of activity that has been the last six weeks
What he takes from his time at ECU and his thoughts on last season’s super regional matchup with Vanderbilt
The key to the development of ECU’s Gavin Williams
Whether Fullerton can still succeed in the way it has in the past
What makes a typical Cal State Fullerton player
Why baseball alumni of the program are so engaged with it, even years later
The state of the facility improvements that are underway at Goodwin Field
His impressions of the Big West now that he’s been out of the league for a few years