Colleges: Former UCI baseball assistants flourishing

It has been a dazzling past few weeks for former UC Irvine baseball assistant coaches.

Former UCI associate head coach Pat Shine captured the national spotlight on Monday, when he was the pitcher for Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton who won the All-Star Home Run Derby in record-setting fashion.

In addition to his regular duty pitching batting practice for the Marlins, Shine’s responsibilities include reviewing instant replays in order to inform Manager Don Mattingly on whether to challenge umpire decisions.

Former UCI assistant Sergio Brown helped the University of Arizona reach the College World Series finals in his first season with the Wildcats. Brown coached first base and aligned the defense for Arizona.

Former UCI assistants Ted Silva and Jason Gill are currently assistants for the USA Baseball collegiate national team that is in the middle of an international tour that has been to Taiwan and Japan and will soon head to Cuba.

Silva just completed his fifth season as pitching coach at Nebraska, while Gill has spent the last eight seasons as Loyola Marymount’s head coach.

Former UCI pitching coach Jason Dietrich was hired July 1 as the pitching coach at Oregon. Dietrich spent five seasons on the UCI staff (2008 to 2012) and has been the pitching coach the last four years at Cal State Fullerton.

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Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli is working alongside Gill and Silva as an assistant coach under Oregon head man George Horton with the collegiate national team.

Altobelli said his opportunity came about after former Team USA assistant David Pierce was hired to replace Augie Garrido at the Texas head coach.

Altobelli, who had approached Horton previously about earning an assistant’s role, quickly was moved in to replace Pierce, with whom Altobelli played with at the University of Houston. Pierce and Altobelli have remained the best of friends.

Altobelli is wearing No. 22 with Team USA. This is not a surprise to those who know that the number is also special to Altobelli, having been worn by former OCC catcher Jourdan Watanabe, who was killed while a member of the Pirates program in 2009.

Pierce had been wearing No. 22, so Altobelli literally fit right in.

“It’s the power of 22 coming through again,” said Altobelli, who is coaching first base and aligning the defense for Team USA.

First base is the opposite side of the diamond for Altobelli, the all-time wins leader among OCC coaches with a a 596-441-3 record in 24 seasons, including state titles in 2015, 2014 and 2009. He coaches third base for OCC.

“It’s a little weird,” Altobelli said of coaching first just days after earning the assignment. “And when we’re in the third-base dugout, it’s a longer hobble for me to get over to first base. The thing I’m not used to, though, is having to hold the elbow guard, the shin guard, the wrist guard [of the players after they reach first or second base]. If we get a rally, I have four or five things I’m trying to hold onto and I don’t know where to put them. I asked an umpire ‘You think Pete Rose would wear any of this stuff?’ Kids, nowadays might as well be wearing catcher’s gear.”

Altobelli, who had been an assistant and a head coach in the Cape Cod League, said wearing the Team USA uniform is among the greatest thrills of his career.

“It’s one of those bucket-list items,” Altobelli said, “just like coaching in the Cape was. Wearing USA on your chest is pretty special. It’s very humbling.”

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Also wearing USA across his chest is UCI star Keston Hiura, who will be a junior in 2017. Hiura, limited to designated hitter duty due to a balky throwing elbow, was hitting .308 through Wednesday’s 1-0 USA victory in Japan.

Hiura, who has started six games and appeared in 10, was eight for 26 and is tied for the team lead with two home runs. His five runs batted in rank second on the team, he is slugging .538, and he is one for two in stolen-base attempts.

Including Friday, the American college players will play three more games in Japan, before heading to Cuba, where six games are scheduled from July 23-27.

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For the second time in two seasons, former OCC center fielder Boog Powell was suspended on June 23 for testing positive for a banned substance.

Powell, who was on the 40-man roster for the Seattle Mariners and was playing for the Tacoma Rainiers of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, was suspended without pay for 80 games when the performance-enhancing drug dehydrochlormethyltestosterone was detected in his system.

Powell, who was hitting .270 in 248 at-bats with three home runs and 27 RBIs, as well as 10 stolen bases, was suspended 50 games in 2014 after testing positive for an amphetamine.

In a statement, Powell said he was unaware of how the substance could have been in his system and that he would never betray competitors and teammates by attempting to gain an improper advantage.

The 5-foot-10, 185-pound outfielder, 23, had been the Mariners’ No. 8-ranked prospect. He was drafted in the 20th round by Oakland in 2012, after his only season at OCC. He was traded to Tampa Bay in January, 2015, and acquired by Seattle in a trade in November, 2015.

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Through Thursday, Mamadou Ndiaye, a 7-foot-6 former UCI center playing for Golden State’s NBA Summer League team, had failed to score in two games. He did collect three rebounds.

The summer league at UNLV ends Monday.