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Will Cal State Fullerton's Baseball Turmoil Spill Over to UCLA?

Cal State Fullerton is in freefall after being swept by Cal Poly. They are now 18-16, and 3-6 in Big West conference play. More importantly, before boarding their bus to San Luis Obispo during the week, the team was informed that head coach Rick Vanderhook has been placed on administrative leave. Vanderhook is in his 3rd season as head coach, but has been associated with the Fullerton program on and off for 26 years. One of the "off" periods was his 3 year stint as an assistant coach under Coach Savage at UCLA for 3 seasons, a term which included the Trevor Bauer-Gerrit Cole 2010 Omaha team.

In terms of premier baseball programs on the West Coast, IMO, there are 3 consistent programs who are in the hunt most years- UCLA, Oregon State, and Fullerton. More often than not, the road to Omaha runs through Westwood, Corvallis and/or Fullerton. There are programs with" feel good" seasons like Cal Poly and Washington this year, and Cal a couple of seasons back. Arizona even won the national championship 2 years ago, before falling back into the pack. But in terms of premier year-in, year-out programs, there are only UCLA, Oregon State and Fullerton.

If the Vanderhook situation plays out as it might, there could be musical chairs in the future. And in any normal situation, this would be irrelevant for us. But "any normal situation" would also mean a competent AD. Doughnut has made the right moves with respect to baseball, including locking up Coach Savage for a long term extension. But this is the same person who gave us, against all odds, Karl Dorrell and Steve Alfraud.

Stay tuned.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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