FULLERTON, Calif. – Cory Vanderhook has been named Cal State Fullerton interim head baseball coach through the 2027 season, Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Jim Donovan announced on Thursday. 

"I very much appreciate Cory agreeing to step into the interim head coach role through the 2027 season," Donovan said. "As a member of the 2006 Titan baseball team, combined with his coaching experience—most recently as the associate head coach at UNLV—Cory understands what it takes to be a successful leader and, most importantly, what it takes to be a Titan."

Vanderhook returns to Cal State Fullerton after spending the past seven years as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at UNLV. 

"I'm thrilled to be back at Cal State Fullerton," Vanderhook said. "Being named interim head coach at my alma mater is a dream come true. This program means so much to me, and I'm honored to have the opportunity to lead the Titans and build on the tradition of excellence established here. I'm excited to get to work with our players and staff and help prepare this team for the upcoming season."

During his time at UNLV, the Rebels were crowned the 2022 Mountain West Regular-Season Champions after an impressive 21-9 record in conference play. 

In 2026, Vanderhook saw redshirt senior Drew Barragan named a D1Baseball Midseason Second Team All-American and a Bobby Bragan National Collegiate Slugger Award Midseason Watch List. Barragan also reached base in all 53 games he played in 2026. Nin Burns II was named a First Team All-Mountain West honoree after he paced the Rebels in 23 conference games, leading the league in batting average (.443), OPS (1.326) and slugging percentage (.810).

Prior to his time at UNLV, Vanderhook was a volunteer assistant coach at UC Irvine in 2019 and helped the Anteaters post a 37-17 overall record and finish second in the Big West behind a 17-7 mark. UCI concluded the 2019 campaign ranked No. 20 by Perfect Game, and rose as high as No. 15 and No. 16 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and Baseball America rankings during the season, respectively.

In 2019, the Anteaters had eight members of their squad earn All-Big West honors, including Conference Pitcher of the Year Trenton Denholm and Defensive Player of the Year Christian Koss.

Previously, Vanderhook served as the pitching coach at Abilene Christian for the 2018 season after a three-year run as Cal State Fullerton's director of operations from 2015-17 and four years (2009-12) as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Golden West College.

Vanderhook, a 2002 graduate of Edison High School in Huntington Beach, Calif., played catcher collegiately at Golden West (2003-04) before transferring to South Carolina (2005) and later Cal State Fullerton (2006). He was selected in consecutive MLB Drafts by the Seattle Mariners (2002: 25th round) and Los Angeles Dodgers (2003: 42nd round) following his senior year of high school and freshman season at Golden West, respectively.

Following his collegiate career, Vanderhook signed as a free agent with the Chicago Cubs and played in their organization for two seasons before playing in the Baltimore Orioles farm system.

Vanderhook earned his undergraduate degree in communication studies from Cal State Fullerton in 2014.

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