Corbin lays off Oregon's fastball.

Byline: Ron Bellamy The Register-Guard

The Ducks struck out Wednesday in their audacious attempt to lure baseball coach Tim Corbin from Vanderbilt, but could console themselves with the thought that they'd had a good at-bat, one that symbolized just how serious Oregon is about building a competitive program, and how attractive that opportunity might be.

"We still have some great candidates that we've been talking to, and there's a lot of interest," Pat Kilkenny, Oregon's director of athletics, said Wednesday. "We're not going to settle. We're going to get somebody that we think really matches our original expectations, and he (Corbin) definitely fell in that category.

"And every day, we get new names of people that on the surface are accomplished, and we're going to continue to reach out and talk to them, with the goal of getting the coach that we feel really, really good about. ...

"We want to get the stretch candidate, if you follow me."

Among the names on the Oregon list who would certainly fit that description is Dave Serrano, honored by Baseball America as its national coach of the year for taking UC Irvine to the College World Series.

Corbin, the Southeastern Conference coach of the year, visited with Oregon officials on his campus last week, then flew to Eugene over the weekend, the first candidate to make an exploratory visit to Oregon.

Although no formal offer was presented, Kilkenny said, he felt that when Corbin returned to Vanderbilt without making a commitment in principle to take the Oregon job that the Ducks were probably not going to land him.

"We're disappointed because we wanted to continue to seek out that option and see if it was viable for everybody that's involved," Kilkenny said. "Obviously, we were quite interested in him looking at Oregon. He's a special, special coach. I don't know that he's (basketball coach) Mike Krzyzweski of Duke, but he's close to that.

"Vanderbilt is an academic institution that doesn't have a lot of competitors, and they have great facilities, and they compete in the SEC, and he's competed at the highest level academically and athletically. If you look around the landscape, it would be a stretch to find someone who is better than him."

Corbin, who returned to Nashville on Monday, spent two hours Tuesday meeting with Vanderbilt vice chancellor David Williams, and informed Oregon officials early Wednesday morning that he would not pursue the job of rebuilding the Oregon baseball program that was dismantled in 1981.

"It was a big decision, because it weighs on your emotions," Corbin said.

In the end, he cited several factors for staying at Vanderbilt, including his feelings for his assistant coaches and his players.

"You know, we've built something here, and we're close to getting to Omaha (and the College World Series)," he said. "We were close last season, and we have a similar team coming back. You know that the investment of time to building something from the ground up is going to take a major, major commitment physically and emotionally.

"I went through that here almost at Vanderbilt. When it came down to it, it was the starting over again process, and taking your own coaches' emotions and adding it all up, and it just wasn't the case."

But Corbin said he was very impressed with the people at Oregon, from Kilkenny to the coaches he met while visiting Oregon, including football coach Mike Bellotti and men's basketball coach Ernie Kent, who telephoned Corbin four times after his visit trying to recruit him for the Ducks.

"There were other (job) opportunities this year that presented themselves and wanted me to talk to them, and I completely shut them down," Corbin said. "This one was different. They came out and looked at our facility, and for a time, I was maybe used as a consultant, but that turned into a talking opportunity about their position, and I'm glad it happened. ...

"I do think there's a lot of potential there. They're in a great place, where they can recruit Northern California, Oregon and Washington. I think facility-wise, they're going to be as good as anyone in the conference. The one thing that stood out to me most was that getting the town of Eugene immersed in a college baseball program would be easy.

"With the football attendance they have, and the atmosphere they have in basketball, it was a no-brainer. You start winning a few games, you get everyone jumping on the bandwagon, and you have something special that nobody in the Pac-10 has. ..."

In five seasons, the 46-year-old Corbin has produced a record of 198-108 at Vanderbilt, and the Commodores might be the preseason favorite for the national title in 2008, when Oregon's new coach would be in the process of putting together a team from scratch.

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