Vols Hire Fullerton Coach, Holbrook Stays At USC

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee has hired Cal State Fullerton coach Dave Serrano as the Volunteers’ new baseball head coach. Joan Cronan, interim vice chancellor for athletics, announced the hiring Wednesday. Serrano will be introduced at a news conference Thursday. Serrano, 46, returns to the program where he had his first Division I job as an assistant coach between 1995 and 1996. Serrano is one of 11 coaches to take two different programs to the College World Series and has a career record of 289-139-1 in seven seasons as a Division I coach. He led UC Irvine to the 2007 CWS in his third season, and he led Cal State Fullerton to Omaha in 2009. Serrano says it wasn’t an easy decision to leave Cal State Fullerton after his fourth season. Wednesday morning, University of South Carolina associate head baseball coach Chad Holbrook withdrew his name from consideration for the head baseball coaching job at Tennessee. Holbrook released a statement saying he and his family want to remain at South Carolina. The Gamecocks begin defense of their 2010 national championship at the College World Series on Sunday against Texas A&M. Holbrook is in his third season as associate head coach and is the recruiting coordinator with the Gamecocks. Head Coach Ray Tanner brought him to South Carolina in 2008 after Holbrook served 15 seasons on the coaching staff at the University of North Carolina. Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.