In his first season at the helm of Cal State Fullerton's baseball program, Dave Serrano continued Fullerton's long tradition of success that was set in motion years earlier by his predecessors and guided the Titans to their 23rd Division I conference championship and yet another regional title.

Serrano, 44, was hired as the Titans' fourth Division I head coach on Sept. 7, 2007, just six days after his long-time coach, friend and mentor, George Horton, resigned to rekindle the University of Oregon's baseball program in Eugene.

Serrano's second return to Fullerton concluded a three-year run as the head coach at UC Irvine, a team he managed to Omaha in 2007. Serrano was a relief pitcher for Augie Garrido's Titans back in 1986 and was later Horton's assistant coach/recruiting coordinator for eight seasons, helping Fullerton to four College World Series appearances and the school's fourth national championship in 2004.

The head coach's first year atop the Titan program was a success. Serrano guided the Titans to a 41-22 overall record and a 16-5 Big West Conference mark propelling them into the NCAA tournament for the 17th straight time and to within a pair of wins of a trip to Omaha.

Serrano and his coaching staff produced five All-Americans in Erik Komatsu, Jeff Kaplan, Daniel Renken, Christian Colon and Gary Brown; a Big West Conference Tri-Pitcher of the Year (Kaplan) and two all-conference first-teamers (Komatsu and Kaplan). In just his fourth season as a head coach, Serrano notched his 150th win on May 20, 2008, with a 12-8 win over UCLA.

In his coaching career, Serrano has posted an impeccable track record that includes continuous Top 20 recruiting classes, 13 postseason bids and six trips to the College World Series in 14 years at the Division I level. He has tutored a long list of professional players, six Big West Conference Pitchers of the Year and a Freshman Pitcher of the Year, has been part of the nurturing of five first-round draft picks and has helped script two Division I no-hitters.

Following apprenticeships at Cerritos College (1988-1994), the University of Tennessee (1995-96) and Cal State Fullerton (1997-2004), Serrano got his shot as a head coach when he was hired by UC Irvine on July 12, 2005, to replace John Savage.

At the helm of an Irvine program that was defunct from 1993-2001, Serrano compiled a 114-66-1 (.633) record over three seasons and guided the Anteaters to postseason appearances in 2006 and 2007 and their first-ever College World Series in 2007.

The Anteaters led the Big West Conference in nearly every offensive category in 2007 and finished with an overall record of 47-17-1, setting the school record for victories in a season. Serrano's Irvine squad marched through the 2007 Regionals and Super Regionals with a 5-0 record, and finished tied for third in the nation with a 2-2 showing in Omaha, helping to solidify his National Coach of the Year honor presented to him by Baseball America (the same publication that also picked him as the nation's top assistant coach in 2004).

In his third year, Serrano led Irvine to its first-ever Regional title in Round Rock, Texas, with a 13-0 blowout over Wake Forest, then to a sweep of Augie Garrido's Texas Longhorns, 3-1 and 9-6. He then steered the Anteaters to Omaha with a pair of wins over the Shockers in the Super Regional at Wichita State. Prior to 2007, the Anteaters had never had a postsea