Cal State Fullerton To Hire Jason Dietrich As Next Head Coach

Cal State Fullerton on Wednesday will hire Jason Dietrich as its next head coach, sources confirmed to Baseball America.

Dietrich is one of the most-respected pitching coaches in college baseball and spent the last two seasons at East Carolina, where he coached first-team All-American Gavin Williams. Previously, he was pitching coach at Oregon (2017-19), Fullerton (2013-16) and UC Irvine (2008-12). Under Dietrich, Fullerton led the nation in ERA in 2016 (2.22) and his move to Oregon was a boost for the Ducks. 

Dietrich now takes over one of college baseball’s most storied programs following the retirement of Rick Vanderhook, his former boss. Unlike the last three Titans coaches (Vanderhook, Dave Serrano and George Horton), Dietrich did not play at Fullerton for Augie Garrido. He pitched at Santa Ana (Calif.) JC and Pepperdine before playing four seasons in the Rockies organization.

Fullerton was built by Garrido, one of the titans of the sport, and has made 18 College World Series appearances that led to four national championships. It last won the national championship in 2004 and made 29 straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 1992-2018.

The Titans reached Omaha in 2017, but since then they have hit tougher times. They have missed back-to-back NCAA Tournaments – their first misses since 1991. This season, Fullerton went 20-35 and finished ninth in the Big West at 13-25 – its worst finish in conference history. While Fullerton is still well-represented in the big leagues, it has produced just three top-50 picks in the last decade and none since Thomas Eshelman was selected 45th overall in 2015.

Getting Fullerton back to its typical position atop the Big West will be Dietrich’s remit. With reigning champion UC Irvine on the upswing under Ben Orloff, UC Santa Barbara stepping forward in recent years under Andrew Checketts, Eric Valenzuela’s tenure at Long Beach State off to a strong start and Cal Poly still strong under Larry Lee, the Big West is again a challenging conference.

But Fullerton still holds a prominent place in the conference and college baseball nationally. Dietrich will look to capitalize on that to bring the Titans back.

Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball.com first reported Dietrich’s hiring.