Oregon didn’t distance itself from George Horton when replacing the coach who brought baseball back to the school.

Athletic director Rob Mullens interviewed six candidates before returning Mark Wasikowski to the place where he served as an assistant for Horton from 2012-16.

Wasikowski lists Horton among his five coaching mentors and spoke with his former boss in the days after he was named his successor with the Ducks.

“We talked about his family, how he’s doing, basic stuff,” Wasikowski recalled. “Coach I and have talked for years. He is a great person and has a great heart and as a baseball coach, he is a Hall of Famer. When that man picks up the phone, it means a lot to me because he is in an elite category as a person and as a coach.”

Oregon reached the postseason in each of Wasikowski’s first four seasons as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator before finishing 29-26 in the final season before he left to become the head coach at Purdue. The Ducks went 83-81 in the three seasons after Wasikowski left the program.

“Talking to people, everywhere we turned, people said ‘Surely your short list includes Mark Wasikowski’ because you look at how we were playing when he was here and then you talk to people in the industry and look at his background,” Mullens said. “He was the captain of a national championship team as a player and a longtime assistant for one Hall of Fame coach at Arizona and Florida and then what he was able to do here with another Hall of Fame coach. He’s got quite a background.”

Wasikowski’s mentors include John Bryant, his high school coach in Los Alamitos, Calif., and Don Sneddon, who coached him at Santa Ana College. He began his coaching career as an assistant for Mark Hogan at Southeast Missouri State before working for Andy Lopez — his coach during the 1992 College World Series title season with Pepperdine — at Florida and Arizona.

Wasikowski left Lopez to join Horton’s staff during the fourth season after Oregon brought back baseball.

“I was with coach Horton for five years and with coach Lopez for 10 years at Arizona and three at Florida after playing for him at Pepperdine,” Wasikowski said. “All those mentors are key people that taught me baseball. They taught me good things and some things that maybe were not. This will not be a George Horton spin or Andy Lopez spin or Don Sneddon spin or Mark Hogan spin or John Bryant spin. We can learn from all they have done to help student-athletes achieve their goals. That’s going to be what it is, compiling all of their greatness to put our best foot forward.”

Horton has declined two interview requests from The Register-Guard after the school announced a “mutual decision” for him not to return after 11 seasons, but the former coach indicated he will reflect on his tenure at a later date.

Wasikowski made reference to Horton building the UO program multiple times during his introductory press conference.

“This program started with a dream and a vision by Pat Kilkenny, Joe Giansante, George Horton and others and it has yet to be accomplished,” he said. “The vision of seeing Oregon players on the grass at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha before winning a national championship. Now it is time to fulfill that dream.”

Oregon was one win away from Omaha in 2012 before Kent State got a walk-off double in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Ducks 3-2 in the deciding game of a Super Regional at PK Park.

“This program was extremely close at one point in time,” Wasikowski said. “Coach Horton started the program and built it to where it is now. It is a totally different place than where it was when he took a first run at getting the program to Omaha. He started from the ground up and built it to a place for us to spring forward now.”

Mullens noted that hiring Wasikowski was “not about comfort, but about finding the best baseball coach.”

“When he was here, we had three of the most successful years in program history,” he added. “We got to see his work ethic, not just hear other people talk about it. We got to witness it and see how he builds relationships.”

Wasikowski took over Purdue after a 10-44 season before going 29-27 in his first season. The Boilermakers reached the postseason in 2018 before finishing 38-21 and went 20-34 last season.

Oregon averaged 40.8 wins during Wasikowski’s five seasons on the staff before averaging 27.7 after he left the program.

“My thought is that it can be done here,” Wasikowski said. “I wasn’t here for a period of time, so I don’t know what that looked like. I’m sure there were some good times and some not so good like any program, but I am not going to speculate on that. I know what it takes to win and get to the College World Series and I think that can happen.”

That’s similar to the message Horton spread when he arrived at Oregon four years after leading Cal State Fullerton to the CWS title.

“I know what his vision was and I know he was disappointed that he was not able to get the the point where he wanted to in this program,” Wasikowski said. “That will be one of the motivating factors for me and my staff to know how important it was not only for him, but others as well. We owe it to them to see if we can’t fulfill the dream.”