Story Created:
Aug 10, 2010 at 11:05 AM PST
Story Updated:
Aug 10, 2010 at 11:05 AM PST
Chad Kreuter was fired as USC’s baseball coach and replaced by assistant Frank Cruz in an interim capacity Monday.
It was the first coaching change by new athletic director Pat Haden, who has been on the job a week.
Kreuter, a former big league catcher who spent time with the Dodgers, was 111-117 (.487) overall and 39-63 (.382) in the Pac-10 in his four years on the job. USC, 28-32 this past year, never made the postseason. The Trojans were just 3-14 against cross-town rival UCLA.
Cruz, 51, was the head coach at Loyola Marymount from 1997 to 2008.
“On my first day on the job at USC last week, I said one of my goals was to return the USC baseball program to national prominence,” Haden said. “There is no reason we shouldn’t be there.
“We thank Chad Kreuter for his four years of hard work and service, but this move was necessary to revitalize our program. USC is synonymous with college baseball. This is the most successful and tradition-laden program in the country. We’ve won twice as many College World Series titles (12) as anybody. We need to get back to our championship ways.”
Haden appreciates Cruz accepting the job on an interim basis.
“Because this move is being made much later in the year than is customary and with school starting here in two weeks, we have asked Frank Cruz to step in as head coach on an interim basis this season,” Haden said. “He has graciously accepted that challenge. Frank is a highly-regarded and experienced coach who was part of some very successful USC teams in the past, and we believe he will get our program headed back into a winning direction.
“We will spend this coming season identifying the best coach possible for USC and we will include Frank Cruz in the pool of candidates. I’m confident we will find the right person to get us playing again at a championship level.”
Cruz spent the past two seasons as a volunteer assistant with the Trojans. He is in his second tour of duty at USC, having spent four seasons (1993-96) as a fulltime assistant under then-head coach Mike Gillespie. During that first stint, the Trojans compiled a 169-86-1 record and made four straight NCAA Tournament appearances. In 1995, USC made its first College World Series appearance in 17 years, reaching the championship game and finishing with a 49-21 record.
“This is a bittersweet time for me,” Cruz said. “I really enjoyed working for Chad Kreuter and I have the utmost respect for him. I hate to see him go. He put his heart and soul into coaching the USC baseball team.
“I have had a great devotion to Trojan baseball ever since I came here to work for Mike Gillespie. I want this program to succeed in every way possible. I will get to work immediately to continue to improve our program and I appreciate the opportunity given to me to do that.”
In his 12 years at LMU, the Lions won 329 games, three straight West Coast Conference titles and made three consecutive NCAA tournament appearances.
He was an assistant for the 2000 U.S. national team that defeated Cuba twice to win the IBAF Tournament in the Netherlands.
In 2004, he was Team USA’s head coach, directing it to the gold medal at the FISU World University Championships in Taiwan.
Cruz also coached at L.A.’s University High School, leading the school to the 1988 City Section title.
A graduate of St. Monica High, he attended Santa Monica College and transferred to Pepperdine, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education in 1983 and a master’s in education in 1989.
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