UCI Widens Search for Baseball Coach

The list of leading candidates to coach the UC Irvine baseball team when it is resurrected in the spring of 2002 has grown to include Cal State Northridge’s coach and the top assistant at UCLA.

Mike Batesole has a 181-119 record in five seasons at Northridge. He was named national coach of the year by Collegiate Baseball in 1998. He guided the Matadors to a 37-19 mark, including a school-record 16 consecutive victories and wins in 25 of their last 27 games.

Batesole played at Garden Grove High, Oral Roberts and spent four seasons in the Dodgers’ farm system. He spent five seasons as an assistant at Cypress and Orange Coast Colleges.

Vince Beringhele has been at UCLA for 11 years where he is the hitting coach and offensive strategist. He is also responsible for the Bruins’ recruiting.

Florida Coach Andy Lopez, widely considered the front-runner for the job and a close friend of UCI Athletic Director Dan Guerrero, withdrew from consideration this month.

Beringhele and Batesole are among several candidates Guerrero has interviewed, including Chapman Coach Rex Peters, Cypress College’s Scott Pickler, Biola’s John Verhoeven, John Savage, an assistant at USC, Cal State Chico’s Lindsey Meggs and Mike Weathers, Long Beach State’s associate head coach.

Guerrero said Thursday he hopes to name a coach within two weeks.