Titan Assistant Horton Has Applied for 3 Jobs

Cal State Fullerton associate head baseball coach George Horton said Tuesday he has applied for the vacant head coaching positions at Arizona, South Carolina and Georgia.

“Everything is in the preliminary stages, but I wanted to see what might be available for me at this point,” Horton said.

Horton turned down the Washington State job two years ago. He also dropped out of consideration for the top assistant’s job at Louisiana State last year despite indications that he would be a leading candidate to be head coach when Skip Bertman retired.

“One of the things we need as a family is a lifestyle change,” Horton said. “With both my wife and I working a lot, we’d like to get into a situation where she can spend more time with the kids. And in light of where the program is from a personnel standpoint, it might be an opportune time for a staff change, if I’m going to make one.”

The Titans are expected to lose several key players to pro baseball, including six regulars from the 1995 College World Series team.

Horton has been primarily responsible for the pitchers at Fullerton, earning a national reputation in recent years for their development.

Pitching, however, was one of the areas that faltered late this season when the Titans slumped, then were eliminated in regional tournament play for only the second time in five years.

“The starting pitching was adequate, although somewhat inconsistent, but we didn’t have the ability to stop anyone late in the game,” Horton said. “In the regional, it became obvious we didn’t have enough relief pitching.”