NC State Baseball Hires Bill Kernen As Pitching Coach
9/19/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Sept. 19, 2001
RALEIGH, N.C. - NC State baseball coach Elliott Avent filled a vacancy on his coaching staff today by hiring former Cal State Northridge head coach Bill Kernen to serve as the Wolfpack's pitching coach. Kernen, who has 1 5 years of college coaching experience as a head and assistant coach, assumed his new duties effective immediately.
"We are tremendously excited to be able to hire a coach with the background and credentials of Bill Kernen," Avent said. "He was very h ighly recommended to me by some of the most respected and successful coaches in the country. Coach Kernen was a very successful and respected pitching coach and head coach for a number of years, and we were fortunate that he was available at this time." < p=""> Kernen replaces former NC State hitting coach Billy Best, who left the program on September 12 to take a position as an area scout with the Atlanta Braves. With Kernen's hiring as the Wolfpack's pitching coach, Scott Lawler, a former all-conference cat cher at NC State and the Wolfpack's pitching coach the past year, will assume Best's old job as the team's hitting coach. Volunteer assistant coach Billy Jones rounds out the coaching staff and will coach the team's baserunning and defense.
"Billy Bes t did a tremendous job with our hitters the last five years," Avent said. "We will miss him, and we wish him nothing but the best with the Braves. Obviously, losing Billy Best left a hole in our coaching staff, but it also created an opportunity for us to move Scott Lawler into the role of hitting coach, which is a perfect fit for Scott. That wouldn't be possible, however, without finding the right person to move onto the staff as pitching coach, and in Bill Kernen, I believe we've found the right man for the job. This couldn't be a more perfect fit all the way around."
Kernen, who began his coaching career at San Gorgonio (Calif.) High School and served one year as an assistant coach at Orange Coast (Calif.) Community College, brings extensive credie ntials to the Wolfpack program. In addition to coaching Cal State Northridge to a 240-154-3 record and four NCAA Tournament appearances in seven seasons as head coach, he also served as an assistant coach for eight years at Cal State Fullerton and Illinoi s under head coach Augie Garrido, one of college baseball's all-time greatest and winningest coaches.
Kernen joined Garrido as pitching coach at CSUF in 1977, and from 1977-81 the Titans won five consecutive Southern California Baseball Association ch ampionships, and in 1979 won the national championship with a 60-14-1 overall record. Those five Fullerton teams went a combined 244-77-2. Following a four-year absence to pursue private business interests, Kernen rejoined Garrido at Cal State Fullerton i n 1986 and helped lead the 1987 Titans to a 44-17 record and the Pacific Coast Athletic Association championship. Garrido and Kernen left Fullerton following the 1987 season to revive the program at the University of Illinois.
After one season with the Illini, Kernen left to become the head coach at Cal State Northridge, and in 1990, his second season there, he led the Matadors to a 39-22 record and the championship game of the NCAA Division II College World Series. The following year, in the program's first season at the Division I level, he led Northridge to a 44-18-1 record, the finals of the NCAA West II Regional, and a No. 10 national ranking in the final Collegiate Baseball poll, the highest ranking ever for a baseball program in its first year of Division I play.
Cal State Northridge made three consecutive Division I NCAA Regional appearances under Kernen, who picked up his 150th victory as a head coach with an 8-3 win, ironically, over NC State in the 1992 Carolina Invitational at Chapel H ill. He picked up his 200th career win wth an 8-5 triumph over the University of San Diego in 1994. Kernen left Northridge following the 1995 season to move to New York City, where he has been a playwright for the last five years.
In his 15 years at Cal State Fullerton, Illinois, and Cal State Northridge, Kernen coached 13 future major league players, including Tim Wallach, Larry Casian, Jeff Robinson, Mike Harkey, John Christensen, and current big leaguers Brent Mayne, Robert Fick and Adam Kennedy. In addition, two of Kernen's former players, Robert Crabtree and Eric Gillespie, spent most of the 2001 season at the Triple-A level.
Kernen is a 1970 gra duate of the University of Redlands, where he received a degree in psychology with a minor in business administration. He capped his four-year playing career at Redlands by setting school records for wins and ERA. He pitched professionally in the Baltimore Orioles organization from 1970-73, and then began his coaching career as head coach at San Gorgonio (Calif.) High School in 1974..