SAN JOSE, Calif. – SJSU baseball made a pair of additions to their 2019 staff, adding Assistant Coach Eddie Cornejo and Director of Operations Ryan Bobb. Both joined the Spartans from UC Santa Barbara.
Cornejo served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at UCSB from 2012-2017 prior to joining SJSU in July. During his tenure at UCSB, he helped lead the program to a 231-167-3 record and advanced the program to its first College World Series appearance and win (2016), Super Regional and Regional Tournament win (2016) and Regional Tournament host (2015).
Named the Top Recruiter in the Big West Conference in 2016 by D1Baseball.com, Cornejo recruited five nationally-ranked classes, including the highest-rated class in school history in 2016. In 2015 and 2016, UCSB set Division I school records for wins in consecutive seasons with 40 in 2015 and 43 in 2016.
Cornejo, who played six professional seasons for both the Oakland Athletics and Colorado Rockies organizations, has excelled at developing major league players, producing the most MLB draft picks on the west coast from 2015-17. He has recruited and developed 39 Major League Baseball draft picks, the most in the Big West since 2011. Among those are Dillon Tate, the fourth-overall selection by the Texas Rangers in 2015.
Prior to UCSB, Cornejo was an assistant coach in 2011 at the University of California, Riverside where his infielders and hitters were among the top in the Big West Conference in defensive and offensive categories.
Cornejo launched his coaching career at Riverside Community College in 2010 where he guided the recruitment of all 10 sophomores to NCAA and NAIA institutions. He started his collegiate playing career at Riverside CC in 1999 and transferred to the University of Oklahoma where he was an All-Midwest Region First Team and All-Big West Conference First Team selection while leading the team with a .393 batting average and .452 on-base percentage. He was selected in the 13th round of the 2003 MLB Draft and played professionally until March 2009.
Cornejo wasn't the only addition from UC Santa Barbara this offseason. Ryan Bobb, who served as a student manager from 2015-18 and intern, from 2016-18, will serve as the Spartans' Director of Baseball Operations in 2019.
