Horton at the Helm : Once in charge of defense and pitching, Titans’ new head baseball coach is no stranger to success

FULLERTON — George Horton gives no hint of apprehension, or at least none that can be easily detected, as his first Cal State Fullerton baseball team nears the start of a new season next week.

Horton sees no reason for that.

Nor do those who know Horton and his work as Augie Garrido’s associate head coach, as well as during his successful six-year tenure as head coach at Cerritos College.

“George has had such a major impact on Fullerton’s program for the last several years that I don’t see how it can be anything but business as usual there,” USC Coach Mike Gillespie said.

At Fullerton, that means regularly being one of the nation’s top 20 teams, frequently one of the final eight playing in the College World Series in Omaha and, at least once in each decade, winning a national championship.

Garrido established that as the standard by which Fullerton teams are judged in his 21 seasons before he was lured away last summer by a $1.68-million multiyear contract to be Texas’ coach.

“That’s become our responsibility, keeping the program up there,” Horton said. “But I think if you ask anyone in the game, they’ll tell you that we’re capable of having that kind of success. Every school has its problems, but it’s already been proven that it can be done here.

“Augie did it under some tough circumstances early in his coaching career at Fullerton, and then we did it together under circumstances that were better the last several years. And I think the things will get even better in the future because of the commitment the administration has to our program.”

Horton has been a key figure at Fullerton since he joined Garrido before the 1991 season, when Garrido returned after three years at Illinois. Horton, who played first base on Garrido’s first World Series team in 1975, was a leading candidate to be the Titans’ coach then, and probably would have been hired if Garrido hadn’t decided to come back. Horton’s Cerritos College teams had won 81% of their games as well as three state titles in his six years there.

Since 1991, the Titans have reached the College World Series three times, finished second to Pepperdine in 1992 and won their third national championship under Garrido in 1995, defeating USC in the title game.

That 1995 team, led by national player of the year Mark Kotsay and pitcher Ted Silva, generally is regarded as one of the best in college baseball.

Baseball America recently ranked the top college programs of the last decade, and Fullerton was fifth behind Louisiana State, Florida State, Arizona State and Texas.

Even more interesting was the magazine’s rankings of the top programs of the future. Fullerton was second, behind only LSU.

“We think George will keep it going, and we don’t think the level of talent is going to change without Augie,” said Jim Callis, managing editor of the magazine. “Our sense is that George has been just as vital to that program as Augie has been. He’s certainly well-respected by everyone in college baseball.”

Horton is pleased with that vote of confidence, and optimistic about the program’s future. The Titans are ranked 12th by Baseball America and ninth by Collegiate Baseball in preseason polls.

“I guess I’m like most coaches,” Horton said. “I don’t start a season without thinking that my team is going to be playing in the last game of the season, and we’re going to win it. But I really do believe we can win another national championship, and I think that’s one of the reasons they hired me.”

There is no doubt Fullerton in the ‘90s belonged as much to Horton as Garrido.

Horton, 43, was in charge of the defense and coached the pitchers. He also played a key role in recruiting, along with assistant Rick Vanderhook, who remains on the staff. Horton also handled many of the day-to-day administrative details for Garrido, who referred to Horton more as his “partner.”

“There has been a lot of me in the way we’ve been doing things anyway,” Horton said. “But there will be some subtle differences because I’ll be running the offense now, instead of Augie. You may not see us use the sacrifice bunt quite as much. As everyone knows, that always was one of the staples of ‘Augie Ball.’

“We’ll still do that, but we also may lean a little more to bunting for a hit, or stealing the base or going to the hit-and-run in situations like that. The basic objective is still to get on base, advance and score runs, but I think maybe we’ll have a little more variety in the way we try to do that.”

Fullerton players say they have already noticed some of those differences.

“Coach Garrido focused a lot on the mental side of the game and talked a lot about that, while Coach Horton is big on creating game situations in practice and working that way,” third baseman Mike Lamb said. “I think Coach Horton is giving us a little more freedom to do things on our own too.”

Lamb says practices seem to be a bit more relaxed under Horton. “He seems to want us to develop our own baseball personalities a little more,” Lamb said.

First baseman C.J. Ankrum says Horton’s attention to detail hasn’t changed.

“He goes over everything,” Ankrum said. “He’s a perfectionist, that’s for sure. This is my third year, and I’m still learning a lot of things about the game I didn’t know. But I think he shows a lot of confidence in his players and wants them to be more involved.”

Horton has turned over development of the pitching staff to Dave Serrano, who was an assistant under Horton for three years at Cerritos College and was the pitching coach at Tennessee the last two seasons.

“I haven’t seen that much difference between Coach Horton and Coach Serrano,” said pitcher Scott Hild, the only starter back from last season. “Since they coached together before, the way they do things is about the same.”

But Horton still keeps a close watch.

“Augie was good at delegating, and that’s something I’m still going to have to grow into,” Horton said. “That’s always been a weakness of mine. I still worry a little too much about all the little things, but I have a lot of confidence in Dave and Rick, as well as our other assistant Mike Kirby. Mike is back as our volunteer coach this year, but he’s good enough to be a top assistant at any Division I program. I learned from Augie that having a good staff is really important, and I think we have that.”

Horton says one difference in being the head coach is his new involvement away from the playing field.

“We have to come up with $50,000 every year to keep the program on the level it is, and I’m the one who answers for that now,” Horton said. “I have to be a lot more involved with fund-raising than I’d been before. I’d never done that at Fullerton. That was always Augie.”

Horton believes Fullerton will continue to attract talented players.

“We haven’t always gotten the first choices on everyone’s recruiting lists, but the players who have come here have improved as baseball players,” Horton said. “The players who come to Fullerton come here for the right reasons. They come here because they want to develop as baseball players, and I think we’ll make sure that keeps happening.”

Horton says he plans to be more active in recruiting than Garrido was in the last few years.

“Augie has his strengths and George has his,” said Rancho Santiago Coach Don Sneddon, a former assistant at Fullerton. “Augie might sell you on something one way, and George will do it another.

“But I’ve played on teams with George at Cerritos, and I’ve coached with him, and I can tell you for certain that George has one of the best baseball minds around. Fullerton isn’t going to miss a beat.”