CORVALLIS — With less than two weeks remaining in the regular season, Corvallis Knights pitching coach Jason Hawkins feels a little bittersweet about the end of his one-year tenure with the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League squad.

Over the next month, while helping the Knights attempt to clinch the West Division, Hawkins will be preparing to leave his native Corvallis and move to Northern California, where he has recently accepted the head coaching position at Occidental College, near Santa Rosa.

“It’s just a matter of getting an opportunity and making the most it,” said Hawkins during a Wednesday night warm-up session before a game with WCCBL affiliate Gresham at Goss Stadium.

Opportunities have been plentiful for Hawkins, so the move is nothing new for the 1989 West Albany graduate. The second-generation coach has bounced all over the West Coast, helping to develop young baseball players.

In 1999, Hawkins became the first baseball coach at Desert Hot Springs High School near Palm Springs, Calif., while he is also currently finishing his fourth season as part of the University of Redlands program.

While Hawkins is now entering his third stop as a coach in California, he earned his stripes in Oregon.

As a player for Western Oregon University, Hawkins simultaneously coached at Springfield High School while earning his degree in English and history.

In between that and earning his master’s in English at Pacific University in Forest Grove, he had other high school gigs at Hillsboro and North Eugene.

Besides 14 years of experience, even Hawkins’ pedigree proves that he was cut from a special coaching mold. His father, Tom, was a coach in multiple athletics for West from 1969 to 1986.

He honed his coaching skills, however, under former baseball coach and current WAHS athletic director, Rich Sipe, as an assistant for two years while heading the junior varsity baseball team.

“My dad has been really instrumental with my coaching experience. He coached for 16 years so I had a lot to learn from him,” Hawkins said.

“And Rich was just a real professional. He exposed me to a lot of things that I use today.”

One coaching strategy that Hawkins has adopted from Sipe is that of the “press offense,” which employs aggressive base running and small-ball tactics.

Hawkins says that “it’s always nice to score a lot of runs” but the Occidental program is hoping that run support will be an afterthought with the pitching experience that he will be bringing to the Tigers’ table.

Through 30 league games this season, the Knights pitching staff has accumulated an earned-run average of 2.20 with a 3-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio while their opponents have batted a measly .197 against them.

“I’ve really enjoyed working with all of these guys this year. This group of pitchers, all 16 of them, are just the most professional, hard-working bunch,” Hawkins said of his staff.

“(The coaches and I) all talked about how lucky we are to have them. “

The players feel the same way.

The running and conditioning program he has us on are the most beneficial,” says Ryan Platt, 22, a pitcher from U.C. Riverside who brings a 0.50 ERA into tonight’s start with visiting Wenatchee.

“Everyday we do core and ab workouts on top of our throwing programs that really help us work the long innings. He’s just given us all a lot of direction, too.”

Knights reliever and Oregon State sophomore Taylor Starr, 19, earned the WCCBL award as Top Prospect following his hitless, two-inning performance during Tuesday’s All-Star Game and he gives much credit to Hawkins for his quick development.

“He’s really helped me with the mental mind-set of pitching,” says Starr about Hawkins.

“He’s a fun guy to work with but he is also very serious about the game of baseball.”

Maybe a little too serious.

Hawkins and his wife Angela, a former coaching colleague’s sister, are currently raising two young sons, Will, 2, and Cal, 1.

Both of the toddlers were named after two of the coach’s favorite baseball players; former San Francisco Giants first baseman Will Clark and legendary Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr.

Keeping that in mind for the future, don’t expect Will and Cal to stray too far away from their respective namesake’s profession, or at least their own father’s dugout.