After a three-year absence, Fred Corral is coming back to Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

The former University of Tennessee pitching coach signed on for his second stint at UT on Tuesday.

First-year baseball coach Todd Raleigh picked Corral up from the airport and put him to work immediately recruiting in Atlanta.

“I’ve met him and heard him speak, but I didn’t really know him,” Raleigh said. “After talking to him in the interview process, there was no doubt.

“He’s a genuinely good guy and so well respected in the pitching ranks around the country. There’s an instant credibility there. It’s going to be a great fit.”

Corral worked under former UT coach Rod Delmonico in 2003-2004 before spending the past three seasons as pitching coach at Oklahoma.

“Another drawing factor was he had a strong passion to come back to UT and Knoxville,” Raleigh said. “You definitely don’t get the feeling he’ll be here two years and decide to move on.”

During his first stay in Knoxville, Corral helped coach six UT pitchers who eventually went on to be drafted into the major leagues.

He helped sign Mt. Juliet’s James Adkins and coached Luke Hochevar into an eventual first overall pick of the Major League draft last year.

“Coming back to the University of Tennessee is very rewarding, not only for me, but for my entire family as well,” Corral said in a UT release. “I’m very thankful to Todd Raleigh and UT for giving me the opportunity to be a Vol again.”

Under Corral, UT’s pitching staffs lowered their collective ERA’s to 3.88 in 2003 and 3.51 in 2004 to rank among the top 15 nationally.

Hochevar might be Corral’s biggest fan.

Called up to the Kansas City Royals’ Class AAA affiliate in Omaha on Tuesday, Hochevar relayed some fond memories of his former mentor.

“Coach Corral is the ultimate pitching guy,” he said in the UT release. “He takes pitching to the next level and pushes his guys to the best of their abilities.

“There is no one in the country as good as Chief. He hits every aspect of the game from mechanics to the mental approach and knows how to teach it better than anyone I have ever been around.”

Corral is a California native who was an All-Pac 10 selection at the University of California in the late 1980s.

He coached in the California junior college ranks before making stops in the minor league farm systems of the Montreal Expos and Los Angeles Dodgers.

“He has a unique way of finding out how to motivate his guys and instills a winner-warrior mentality,” Hochevar said.

Corral joins Bradley LeCroy, a former Western Carolina assistant under Raleigh, on UT’s revamped coaching staff.

“His (Corral’s) track record of developing pitchers is second to none,” Raleigh said. “He knows the University of Tennessee, having coached here before, and he’ll add a lot to our staff.”

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.