After serving as the hitting coach for three years under Jason Hawkins, Luke Wetmore gets his chance to take a swing as the leader of the Occidental College baseball program.

Wetmore had been promoted to assistant head coach and was in charge of the Tigers offense before getting the nod from athletic director Jaime Hoffman to be the team's head coach when Hawkins decided to pursue an NCAA Division I assistant coaching opportunity at UC Santa Barbara.

The 28-year-old from Santa Cruz transitions to head coach with the responsibility of returning the Tigers to prominence.

"I'm excited to be apart of a program with such rich baseball tradition," Wetmore said. "I'm expecting that we're going to compete right away. You can't put a number on wins for the next couple of years, but I do know we are going to get better every day and every game."

Being familiar with the Tigers program and the standards of academic and athletic excellence at Occidental gives Wetmore a head start, one that Hoffman hopes will keep the ball rolling after the team's best three-year stretch since 1991.

"Luke is a natural choice for us at this time," Hoffman said. "He has three years of experience in recruiting to Occidental's academic standards, he has coached every aspect of the game, and he is a true team player in the department."

Wetmore comes highly recommended by his predecessor, who sees Wetmore as a dynamic coach, capable of taking the team to the next level.

"We created climate conducive to winning. Luke is a part of that and he is going to carry that forward," said Hawkins, who was the coach for three years. "It's an attractive job. I think if you were to pool it at the national level you would get great candidates, but I don't think anyone will do a job like Luke will."

Wetmore grew up in Santa Cruz and was a multi-sport standout in football, baseball and wrestling at Santa Cruz High School. Later, Wetmore played baseball and football at the University of Redlands from 2004-08. During his tenure with the Bulldogs, Wetmore won three SCIAC championships, one as a baseball player and two as a football player. He finished his career as an outfielder with a .317 batting average, a .516 slugging percentage, a .412 on-base percentage and 13 home runs.

Wetmore's only other professional coaching stint resulted in a 2010 Mountain Collegiate League Baseball championship as an assistant with the Cheyenne Grizzlies.

In July 2012, Wetmore is set to marry his fiancée Courtney Marsh.

The Tigers are looking to improve on last year's 13-26 overall record and 9-19 sixth place finish in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

"We look forward to supporting (Wetmore) through this transition and watching him put his stamp on Oxy baseball," Hoffman said.