Tale of Two Coaches
Crossing Paths, with Eddie Cornejo and Nathan Choate
The two assistant coaches took markedly different approaches to this road trip, as the bus lurched on the 101 toward the Central Coast, for the opening conference road series against Cal Poly. The pitching coach made his way up and down the aisles, the vocal big brother of the group, keeping everyone loose, while the infield and third base coach, sat quietly, up front, occasionally looking back, to make eye contact with his infielders, who he'd just met a few months before.
Eddie Cornejo and Nathan Choate were both assistants on the 2011 UC Riverside Highlanders, under Head Coach Doug Smith. The team had been on the precipice of the post season the last two years, and were fully expecting to participate in their third NCAA Regional in nine years. The Highlanders made the 2003 Palo Alto Regional, as an at-large team, and the 2007 Tempe Regional as Big West Champions. For a variety of reasons, it was not to be. Injuries played a role, but in the end, their 11-13 conference record, which included six one-run losses, including three in their opponents' final at-bat sealed their fate. So close, but yet so far, as Frankie Valli may have crooned. That Highlanders' team is, to this day, the last UC Riverside team to finish with a winning record, at 29-23 (with the exception of the COVID-shortened 2020 season, where UCR went 9-7).
Prior to the 2008 season, Doug Smith needed a pitching coach, as Andrew Checketts (Head Coach at UC Santa Barbara since 2012) left to join George Horton at Oregon.
“I'm calling you to let you know that we'd like to talk to Andrew,” the skipper of Fullerton's 2004 National Championship team told Smith.
“Not sure Andrew's really interested in anything right now,” the UCR Head Coach replied, being careful to not show his cards.
“He'll be interested for what they're willing to pay,” came the reply from Horton.
Smith, somewhat unwittingly, was involved in what was a bit of a revolving door at that time. With in-state rival Oregon State having won back-to-back College World Series in 2006 and 2007, the Ducks had the desire (and the money) to revive a baseball program they'd shuttered in 1983. Their first target, Dave Serrano, had just led Irvine to their first Omaha appearance as well, in 2007. As the process dragged on, Serrano decided to stay at Irvine, so the Ducks set their sites on Horton, who'd ultimately agree, and serve as Ducks' Head Coach for eleven seasons, from 2009 until 2019.
Horton's hiring set some dominoes into motion. The Titans needed a coach, and many believed Fullerton would select Horton's top lieutenant at the time, Rick Vanderhook, whose ties to Fullerton went back to legendary Head Coach Augie Garrido. Hooky had served his time as an assistant and was a natural choice, especially since, by this point, it was into August, so there wasn't time for an extensive search. The Titans, however, turned their attention to Serrano, who, after initially echoing the sentiment that it should be Vanderhook's job, accepted (that's a story unto itself, for a later date). VanderHook would eventually accept a position on John Savage's staff at UCLA.
Where Doug Smith plays into this, is Paula Smith (no relation), Interim Athletic Director at UC Irvine at the time, had previously been at UC Riverside, when Smith was elevated to Head Coach, following the 2004 season. With Serrano leaving so late, she contacted Doug to gauge his interest in the Irvine job, which he was considering. That's when he first came into contact with Nathan Choate, who'd been a Director of Operations and Volunteer Assistant under Serrano, and wasn't going with him to Fullerton. Back to the search to replace Checketts, at UC Riverside.
“I had a short list,” Doug Smith recalled, “and he (Choate) wasn't on it. I didn't know Nathan at the time.” They'd met, though during Smith's initial consideration of the UC Irvine job that Fall.
When it was clear Smith was staying at Riverside, an interview for Choate was arranged.
“When we talked, it just felt right. His passion came through, and I liked that. He wasn't afraid to get emotional about it. It also became clear that he was a smart guy, and that he really believed in the learning process.”
“I liked that he was demanding, and wanted to see his guys succeed,” Doug Smith continued, “and he was an exceptionally hard worker (in learning about) the recruiting process.”
So a decision was made, and Choate joined Smith at UC Riverside. Now, it was a question of selling him to the players. The returning group was coming off of a Big West Title, the incoming Freshman had all been recruited by Checketts. It would take a steady hand to strike a balance, and have success. The results would demonstrate that Smith had made the right choice, but not without a few bumps.
“We butted heads a little bit,” Trevor Hairgrove confessed. Hairgrove arrived at UC Riverside the same year as Choate in 2008, and stepped right in and started at shortstop. He'd go on to start 200 of his 205 games at SS and be drafted by the Angels in the 18th Round of the 2011 MLB Draft. He'd play in the Angels' chain for three years, before returning to UCR and joining the coaching staff, later going to on to coach at both New Mexico State and Washington State.
“He kind of made it a competition between the pitchers and position players,” he explained. Specifically, there was an incident where he went to the mound to counsel Matt Andriese, who was struggling against BYU. The two had played together in High School, at Redlands East Valley, and Hairgrove could sense something was bothering his friend and teammate.
“Come on, Dreezy, pick it up, you're better than that,” he said before returning to his perch at SS. Fairly typical on-field conversation between the two. The game continued, without much incident. Later, it was Choate who requested Hairgrove apologize to his pitcher. It was the matter of a young coach, trying to build trust amongst his guys.
A little closer to home, Dan Pellegrino disclosed the same thing, although for different reasons. “He was a young coach and I was a young player, we didn't have the easiest start to it.”
No one was ever going to confuse Pellegrino with Pudge Rodriguez, but he was a top-flight defensive catcher, who knew how to communicate and command a game. Pellegrino ended up kind of being the odd man out in Riverside, after Robert Brantly showed up. Brantly played two years at UCR, and was drafted in the 3rd Round by Detroit in 2010, and eventually made the big leagues.
Pellegrino became the Highlanders' starting catcher on that 2011 squad, but taking it back to 2008, he started twenty-three games as a Freshman, due to a couple of veteran guys not making grades. This lead to the biggest conflict between the two.
“I thought I should be calling pitches,” Pellegrino explained, “It was a strength I had, where I could affect the game in a positive way. It felt like he was taking that away.”
By the end of his freshman year, things started to click. Pellegrino could see he and Choate actually had similar personalities, which had led to some of the previous conflict. Now, on the same side, he could see they were in it together. A big stride for Pellegrino came when he realized the two of them, catcher and pitching coach, needed to complement each other, in how they dealt with the pitching staff.
With a year under his belt now, Choate had pitchers and catchers over to his house in Corona for a melding session, and dinner. When you're playing college baseball, a free meal is something you never take for granted.
“He pulled me aside,” Pellegrino remembers. Although they were getting along better, Choate sensed he needed to extend a gesture to his catcher, to advance the relationship.
“Dan, it's not that I don't trust you, it's that I have two kids and a wife, and I would not be able to look them in the eye, putting the way we put food on the table, in the hands of a 20 year old.”
While Dan didn't completely agree, he understood the point the coach was making. Trust was going to be key between he and the pitchers, as well as between catcher and pitching coach. A year in, and lifted from the large shadow of Checketts, Choate started to be more of himself with the players. The interactions loosened, and they were on their way.
“He really taught me the value of the straight change,” Pellegrino explained. “It reduces reliance on the slider, and the soft contact can help reduce workload and manage pitch counts.”
By the time Pellegrino was a Junior and Senior, Choate really loosened the reigns and now, he was calling some games. They were able to build a trust to where he knew what Coach Choate wanted without too much explanation, which helped, particularly during mound meetings. Pellegrino would later go on to be drafted by the San Francisco Giants, and play in the Baltimore Orioles system.
Perhaps the greatest example of Coach Choate's success at UC Riverside is the story of Eddie Orzoco. Orzoco had been a big-time local recruit out of Rubidoux High. He was going to fill the role of Jamie Simmons, who'd led UC Riverside to their 2007 conference championship, and ended up being a 1st Round pick for Oakland in the 2007 draft. One of the first times I was ever in Coach Smith's office, I commented on his Coach of the Year Award for that season, he said, “I should probably pack that up and send it to James Simmons. Cause most of my coaching for that year was patting Jamie on the butt and handing him the ball on Friday.”
“Coach Checketts had recruited me, so I had no connection to Coach Choate at all,” Eddie explained. Their relationship developed over time, but they initially bonded over the work of Sports Psychologist Ken Ravizza. He had read his book and Coach Choate had been exposed to Ravizza’s work through Coach Serrano, at Irvine.
Over his first three years at UC Riverside, Orozco struggled. In nearly sixty innings pitched, he sported a 9.20ERA, while allowing nearly one hundred hits. He'd battled injuries, missing all of his Sophomore season, as well as making the adjustment from high school to college, along with some personal challenges. Finally, in 2011, it all started to come together.
“I learned about working smarter, instead of harder.”
There was the mechanical stuff. He worked with Choate on his change-up grip, which ended up being his out pitch. Orozco had been mostly a fastball/slider guy in HS. He learned about commanding every part of the zone, recalling a revelation about how if it's timed right, you can sometimes get outs with the fastball up in the zone. He recalled a drill where the assignment was simply to get twenty-five fastballs to the same spot, on the glove side. Learn to win a pitch at a time, with proper execution.
Orozco described his conversion, however, as being from results-driven to someone who was able to embrace process. Under Coach Choate, he’d examine whether he working on the right things, leveraging his strengths on the physical side, merging them with his newly-learned mental skillset. It all came together for Eddie, in 2011. In a seventy-one inning sample, Orozco went 5-2 with a 2.29 ERA, while striking out 60 and holding opposing batters to a .243 average. Still, in June, when the MLB Draft arrived, no calls came.
“I was disappointed,” Eddie remembers, “I'd had a really good year, and didn't get what I wanted.”
Choate was there for him there, as well. By then he'd agreed to move on from UC Riverside, and accept a position with Head Coach Andy Stankiewicz at Grand Canyon. Still, he sat with Eddie for thirty minutes to explain how far he'd come. Take this as an opportunity to expand on what you want from school. Take the summer off, don't play summer ball, work on yourself. As a fifth-year guy, aspire to be more of a mentor and a leader, when you do come back.
That's exactly what Orozco did, throwing 98 innings in 2012, with 106 strikeouts and a 2.84era. He threw four complete games, including a three-hit shutout against Sacramento State, where he took a perfect game to the 7th and struck out 15. The Chicago Cubs came calling that year in the 22nd Round, and Eddie got his shot at pro ball, before an injury ended his career. Along the way, he roomed with a guy named Kris Bryant, who eventually helped the Cubbies break the curse.
In the end, what Eddie remembers about Coach Choate is that he was a genuine guy who continued to check in, even after Eddie was done playing pro ball. From Choate, he learned to believe in, and engage the process, allowing him to take a step back from being so wrapped up in the results. All those things coaches are supposed to do.
Over the course of his stay at UC Riverside, Nathan Choate saw ten pitchers drafted, including Joe Kelly, who although recruited by Andrew Checketts, spent two years working with Choate, before being taken in the 3rd Round, by St. Louis. Andriese would follow two years later, being tabbed in the 3rd Round by the Padres in 2011.
Allegedly, Dave Serrano's relationship with Nathan Choate began as a missed connection.
“He pitched at Esperanza, and it was his dream to play at Cal State Fullerton. I was the recruiting coordinator at the time, and supposedly I set up a meeting with him and then no-showed. I was pretty organized back then,” Serrano recalls,”but it was possible. There were lots of things going on.”
Choate went from Esperanza High, where he won a CIF Championship at Angels' Stadium in 1997, alongside current UC Davis Head Coach Tommy Nicholson (who also played for Augie Garrido at Texas) to Santa Ana College, parlaying his JuCo Experience into a spot at Cal Poly. He was good enough to win the award for top relief pitcher in his two years in San Luis Obispo. Part of his experience there involved laying the turf at Baggett Stadium, when they were redoing the surface. Choate recalled it being a great summer job, cause it kept you around the ball field and payed relatively well. A couple of his teammates even joined him on the job.
Serrano had been a JuCo guy himself, having played at Cerritos College, before moving on to Cal State Fullerton. Upon being hired at UC Irvine he got a call from Danny Ontiveros, a scout in Southern California. “I have a guy that can help you out.” That “guy” was the pitching Coach at Esperanza High School, Nathan Choate. Having just been installed at UC Irvine, Serrano had a bevy of tasks ahead of him, and said it took him about a month to even put Choate on his “to-do” list.
Then he'd see the same “619” pre-fix on his caller ID before he made the connection. “Who is this guy? He won't back off.” Finally, a meeting was arranged.
“He knocked my socks off,” Serrano remembered. “We had the same philosophy on pitching, and after we talked for a while, I could tell it was a fit.”
Choate came on board as Director of Operations, before being elevated to Volunteer Assistant, where he helped Serrano out with the pitchers, and was given the title of “pitching coordinator.” Choate was part of the Irvine staff, when they made their run to Omaha in 2007, after which all those dominoes began to move.
After Riverside, Choate moved on to Grand Canyon from 2012 to 2016, before landing at San Diego with Rich Hill. The stint with Toreros didn't quite work out. When a colleague suggested this might have been a byproduct of his boss' personality, Choate quickly stopped them. “I knew what I was getting into.”
Sometimes things just don't work. He next landed at LMU, with Jason Gill, who also comes from the Fullerton heritage. After a run to the NCAA in 2019, Gill landed the top spot at USC. The Lions job was in flux for a week or so, as their initial target decided to not accept the position. This was right around the time that Dave Serrano became head coach at CSUN, prior to the 2020 season. I texted Coach Choate, knowing that Serrano was mentor of his.
“Am I gonna see you at CSUN? You coming with Coach Serrano?”
The reply came: “I am not. But stay tuned.”
Two days later, on June 25th, 2019, Nathan Choate was named Head Baseball Coach at Loyola Marymount University. A long way from that bus ride to his alma mater.
Back to Coach Serrano, who was named head coach at CSUN, June 23rd of 2019, after spending a year working for Baseball America. He'd spent 2018 as pitching coach at West Virginia, under Randy Mazey, off of his six-year stint as head coach at the University of Tennessee. He was back in the dugout, but needed to assemble a staff.
He had Neil Walton in line, who'd played on Coach Horton's 2004 National Championship team at Cal State Fullerton, where Serrano had been the pitching coach. He was leaning toward reaching out to Bobby Andrews, another coach with a Fullerton pedigree, when he got a call from Eddie Cornejo.
Serrano prides himself on being an “out-of-the-box” thinker, but this still had to be the right fit. Serrano delegates a great deal of responsibility to his assistants, something he picked up from George Horton. He liked working with people he knew, and while he was aware of Eddie, didn't know him. He deferred to Neil Walton, who'd worked with Cornejo at Santa Barbara. After that endorsement, Eddie was on board.
He liked that Cornejo was an aggressive recruiter, and that his work ethic was off the charts. Serrano is quick to mention how hard he takes losses, and he felt the same within Cornejo.
“I wasn't truly satisfied with a season until 2004 (Fullerton National Championship) and I felt Eddie was the same way. The two of us were dynamic when working together,” Serrano later recounted.
That aggressiveness, sometimes got the best of Cornejo, involving some recruiting battles with his old friends at UC Riverside, while he was with UC Santa Barbara.
Hairgrove remembers confronting Cornejo about it “UC Riverside is where you got your start.” he recalls saying.
There was an issue with a recruit choosing between Santa Barbara and Riverside, where he told the young man that Doug Smith was on the verge of retirement. This riffled Doug a bit, to where he called Eddie on it, but Cornejo stepped back, and admitted his faux pas to Smith, which the coach respected.
“Just one of those things that comes out of a very competitive environment,” Smith later related, expressing that he'd made the decision to “Get over it, and move forward.”
Coach Cornejo came to UC Riverside in January of 2011, when Randy Betten, who'd been with the program since Smith's first season, was hired as Head Coach at Cal Poly Pomona. Betten had played at Riverside City College, and had been on the staff there, when Cornejo was an infielder on back-to-back State Championship teams in 2000 and 2001, under Dennis Rogers.
“I wanted to get someone like Randy, who could work with infielders, and came from a good program. We knew Eddie, through our connection with Coach Rogers.”
Smith had remembered Eddie from when he'd been the team's primary recruiter in the D2 era, and they'd recruited a lot of RCC players. Cornejo had served as the Interim Head Coach at RCC in 2010, but his stint at UC Riverside was his first D-1 coaching experience.
“It only lasted six months, but it was a good fit.”
Hairgrove recalled having worked mostly under Betten, but that Cornejo's emphasis on defense helped him.
“I only met Eddie in January of my Senior Year,” Hairgrove explained, “so our relationship was probably more baseball-based, from him being able to talk the game from the shortstop position.”
Cornejo brought in several unorthodox drills, one of which involved getting players attuned to non-verbal communication on the field. Cornejo would use the baseball as a conduit of communication with his players, during infield drills.
Hairgrove also recalled “He'd have the Latino Music going during the infield drills at practice, which added an edge to it. I definitely learned to be smoother around the infield, on ground balls.”
Pellegrino recalled the new coach being cerebral and thoughtful. “He'd never say no to anyone who was willing to put the work in.”
Both Hairgrove and Pellegrino remembered that Cornejo's personality had been a shift from Betten who was very outgoing and energetic. The shift to Cornejo worked with a veteran group, since maybe it helped to have a different voice, and opened up their minds a bit.
Pellegrino was impressed, that although Cornejo was the new guy, he didn't mind players challenging him. “He was okay with any question, as long as you did it in a respectful way,” he explained, “but as a group, we were on board with Eddie, and would've run through a wall for him.”
To his own credit, that policy hasn't changed much with Cornejo as a Head Coach. In a recent interview he talked about how he never had a problem explaining to a player why any decision was made, as there was always going to be thought and reasoning behind every move.
Dave Serrano and Doug Smith both reference Cornejo's connection to Dennis Rogers, as a big influence on how he runs things.
“He's a Dennis Rogers guy, and I have the utmost respect for Dennis Rogers,” Serrano expressed. “Coach Rogers coached with tough love, and Eddie has a little Dennis Rogers in him. He's prepared and he's organized, and he's not afraid of the truth, he'll tell you up front. Sometimes, the truth hurts, but it's always the best information you can give.”
For his case, Coach Cornejo admits that he might have said “two words” to Coach Rogers while he was playing for him at RCC, but they now communicate frequently, and he's one of his mentors in the game.
Upon leaving UC Riverside, Cornejo was Andrew Checkett's first hire at UC Santa Barbara, when became Gauchos’ head coach, following the 2011 season.
“It was more money, and they (Checketts and Cornejo) had a relationship, dating back to RCC, so it was a good move for Eddie,” Coach Smith commented.
When the two arrived, the Gauchos hadn't been to a regional in a decade, and just twice in the last sixteen seasons. They reached a post season in their second year together and then went back-to-back in 2015 (Big West Champions) and 2016 when they reached Omaha.
One of Coach Cornjeo's projects while he was with the Gauchos was helping to assemble a staff to implement a college-style of analytics, which mostly involved student managers. As pilot programs go, it was fairly successful, as even after Cornejo left, some of those individuals are now working for big league teams.
A successful run ended following the 2018 season, and Coach Cornejo spent 2019 with San Jose State. I discussed the split with Coach Checketts during the 2022 season, which he equated to “people getting a divorce.” In same breath however, Checketts also expressed how he'd never downplay Cornejo's role in what they'd achieved with the Gauchos. “There's no doubt he helped us build it.”
From talking with Coach Cornejo, the trip to Omaha was special in 2016, since he'd never been as a player. His first year at Oklahoma, under Larry Cochell, the Sooners qualified for the Wichita Regional, but their season ended quickly, with two losses.
After having worked with Coach Serrano the previous two years, I was curious as to how Coach Cornejo would assume the helm upon his departure. Once the season began, you could see the differences between the two men. Serrano, being more talkative, with Cornejo retaining his more reserved persona. As the Matadors began to win, however, it became clear the worst thing Cornejo could have done was to try and be Coach Serrano. Back to when he replaced Coach Betten at Riverside, he carved out respect with a new group of players, by being himself. Again the process worked at CSUN, but now with a group that he had helped recruit himself. The results speak for themselves. The Matadors didn’t get much time to savor the season’s end, finding out Tuesday, that one of their cornerstones, Ali Camarillo had entered the transfer portal, coming off of a season where he hit .371. You can’t help but be confident that Eddie Cornejo has a plan to deal with that as well. The road isn’t always smooth, as he can attest to, there are some bends and curves to be navigated.
EPILOGUE
As I sat in the dugout with Nathan Choate before a series against BYU, that I was to broadcast, when the topic came up that he and Eddie had both been on that same staff for Doug Smith, in 2011, and that they were both now Head Coaches. I’m not sure how close the two were, but I do recall as the race for the regular season crown in the WCC winded down, Eddie Cornejo would occasionally ask, with regard to LMU, “Can they win it?” The two teams ended up not playing in 2023, but hopefully that will change for next year.
Nathan Choate's Lions won the West Coast Conference, with a record of 21-6, securing the top seed in the league's post season tournament. The outright regular season title, was LMU's first since 1998, and to top it all off, Choate was named WCC Coach of the Year.
Things didn't work out for the Lions in Las Vegas. After seven strong innings from Diego Barrera, Santa Clara, helmed by Greg Moore, the man Serrano replaced at CSUN, played long-ball against closer Merrick Baldo, to push the Lions into the loser's bracket, 4-1. With the quick turnaround, LMU got blitzed by Portland 15-3. Zach Kirby had been lights out for most of May, but was victimized by a couple of errors and allowed ten hits in 2.2 IP in an elimination game, and the Lions were done.
As for Eddie Cornejo's Matadors, they were an extra inning loss (April 30th vs. Cal State Fullerton or May 5th at UC San Diego) from being the outright Big West Conference champions in 2023, and even though they finished with twenty conference wins, their RPI left then out of any consideration for an at-large berth to a regional. CSUN did win eight of ten conference series in 2023, and eleven of fourteen weekend series, overall. Losing only to Checketts’ UC Santa Barbara, a series at Mercer over Easter Weekend, and to the lone Big West team in the post-season, Cal State Fullerton.
Despite the late season disappointments, both coaches guided their teams to successful seasons in 2023, with a lot to look forward to. The Lions look to have a solid foundation in place, while the Matadors may have as many as seven starters back from their potent 2023 lineup. Although no one can predict where either of these teams is going, there's a confidence, since both are led by coaches who have a clear idea about where they've come from. Neither has had an easy road to where they currently reside, but they've been able to navigate bumps in their own journey, to their respective place in the dugout. From the worst of times, to the best of times.