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(Sept.
19, 2007) - Former UC Irvine assistant Nathan Choate has been
hired as the new pitching coach at UC Riverside, Head Coach
Doug Smith announced Wednesday.
Choate
spent the 2007 season as pitching coach for the Anteaters
under then-Head Coach Dave Serrano. The Anteaters finished
the 2007 season ranked fourth in the nation and reached the
College World Series in Omaha, NE. Choate had previously served
one year as the Anteaters' director of baseball operations.
"Nathan
was intimately involved with everything that happened on that
pitching staff and bears a lot of the responsibility as to
why they were successful," Smith said. "I am very
pleased to have Nathan on our staff. I think he is a great
fit for our program. He is a young, energetic guy with great
passion and I feel very fortunate for him to be with us."
"This
is a tremendous opportunity and I am really excited to be
part of the UCR family," Choate said.
Choate
pitched at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for two seasons, where
he was awarded the "Jim Newkirk Fireman's Award",
given to the team's best relief pitcher in his junior and
senior seasons. In his two-year career he posted a 6-5 record
and struck out 52 batters in 67.2 innings pitched. Choate
made 45 appearances for the Mustangs and logged eight saves
during his stint.
Prior to joining the Mustangs,
Choate competed at Santa Ana Junior College in 1998 and 1999,
helping the Dons to a third-place finish in 1999. He prepped
at Esperanza High School and was a first-team all-state selection
after helping the team to a CIF championship and a No. 4 national
ranking.
Choate
spent a year as the pitching coach at Esperanza High prior
to joining the UCI staff and in the summer of 2006 was the
pitching coach for the Hyannis Mets of the Cape Cod League.
He
received a BS in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Sports Management
from Cal Poly in 2002.
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