2 thoughts on “Twitter: USC beats UCLA …”

  2. AMLTrojan

    I’d have preferred a fellow Pac-10 school won the title, not an SEC school. Furthermore, fUCLA’s success should sting with every Trojan — their coach, John Savage, was the pitching coach under Mike Gillespie back when we last won an NCAA baseball championship:

    Prior to taking over the UC Irvine program, Savage served as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Southern California (USC) from 1996 to 2000. At USC, he produced numerous successful athletes, including consecutive Pac-10 Pitchers of the Year Seth Etherton, Rik Currier and eventual American League Cy Young Award winner Barry Zito. Ultimately, Savage helped guide Etherton to the 1998 Sporting News National Player of the Year award and was instrumental in his nomination as a Golden Spikes Award finalist. Also under his mentorship was current San Diego Padres right-hander Mark Prior.

    As recruiting coordinator, Savage helped facilitate the Trojans’ top-ranked recruiting class (Collegiate Baseball) during the 1999-2000 season and served as an assistant to Mike Gillespie for the USA Baseball National Team of collegiate all-stars in the summer of 2000. That summer, the U.S. National Team tallied a 27-3-1 record and won the gold medal at the Haarlem Baseball Week Tournament in the Netherlands.

    Two years prior, Savage earned Collegiate Baseball’s Assistant Coach of the Year honors in 1998 after his coaching talents helped USC capture the 1998 College World Series Championship. He also helped guide USC to an NCAA Regional title in 1999 and the NCAA Super Regional at Georgia Tech in 2000.

    Rather than promote Savage or lure him to USC after they forced Gillespie out and hired Chad Kreuter instead (Kreuter is 83-85 as head coach). USC baseball’s record since Savage went to UCI is 283-243 (.538); while he was pitching coach and recruiting coordinator, USC went 218-100-1 (.683).

    If that doesn’t stick in your craw, you’re not paying attention.

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