Cory Vanderhook enters his sixth year as an assistant baseball coach and the recruiting coordinator at UNLV after being hired in August 2019 by Rebel head coach Stan Stolte. The Hustlin' Rebels were crowned the 2022 Mountain West Regular-Season Champions after an impressive 21-9 record in conference play. The 2022 squad started off conference play as only the second team in program history to hit the 7-0 mark in conference play, the previous being 1988's squad.
The 2025 campaign saw UNLV punch its first trip to the MW Tournament since 2022 as they earned the No. 4 seed with a 31-23 ledger (16-14 MW). That squad was also recognized with four All-MW honorees in Dean Toigo (MW Co-Player of the Year), Carson Lane (First Team), Cole Koniarsky (Second Team) and LJ Mercurius (Second Team), the most the team saw since the 2022 season when they were awarded seven honorees.
Most recently, 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.
Prior to his stint at UCI, 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, California, 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.
