USD Baseball 2009

I Head Coach RICH HILL 11th Season as Head Coach

Rich Hill has built the USO Tore- ros into one of the most success- son ranked No. 6 Hill helped guide ful Division I baseball programs on Brian Matusz to the WCC Pitcher of the West Coast. The 2008 spring the Year award and the No. 4 over– season will be Hill's 22nd year as a all pick in the MLB draft. Hill also head coach at the collegiate level, guided 10 Toreros to AII-WCC hon– and 11th at USO, having enjoyed ors. Hill was also tabbed as the WC 18 winning seasons in 21 years. Coach of the Year for the second Since taking over at USO in 1999, consecutive season. long and ended the regular-sea–

Hill has been remarkable in lead- ing the Toreros to seven consecu– tive 30 plus win seasons, re-writing the school record book en route to claiming back-to-back West Coast Conference Champi–

In 2007 Hill directed the Toreros to the program's first 40-win sea– son, a program-best No.4 national ranking and a No. 8 national seed in the NCAA Regionals, becoming the first school in the history of the conference to receive this honor. The Toreros also hosted the NCAA Regionals, bringing this event to the city of San Diego for the first time ever. The Toreros posted an impressive 18-3 record in the wee including five consecutive series sweeps, a first at USO as well. Hill also eclipsed the 600 career win mark and moved over 300 wins as the USO skipper. For his efforts, he was awarded the wee Coach of the Year distinction. In the 2006 season, not only did Hill lead USO back to the postsea– son, but he also helped guide the Toreros to a, then program-best No. 8 national ranking in the Col– legiate Baseball top-25 poll on Feb. 2, 2006. Other milestones that Hill achieved during this historic sea– son was the team recorded its first win over a No. 1 ranked opponent as they swept the defending na– tional champion Texas Longhorns in the opening weekend. Hill be– came the third coach in the his– tory of the wee to eclipse the 200

onship titles in 2002 2003 and also claim– ing the WCC crown in 2007 and 2008.

In 2008, Hill led the Tore– ros to a second consecutive WCC title and his freshman class was rated the No. 1 re–

cruiting class in America according to Baseball America.USO posted the program's sec–

ond 40-win sea– son by setting the program record with a 44-17 mark.The Tore- ros received a program–

best No. 5 preseason national ranking by Rivals.com and USO remained in the

top-25 all season