Washington has ramped up its efforts to hire a blue-chip coach to replace Ken Knutson. A source close to the situation confirmed to Baseball America that Washington has flown San Diego coach Rich Hill to Seattle on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the opening, and presumably to woo him. Common wisdom over the last few years has held that Hill would not leave USD unless it was for another top job in Southern California (like USC or San Diego State), but it appears he is seriously entertaining the notion of leaving his small, private school for a public school in the Pacific-10 Conference.

If Hill leaves, the Toreros have two very strong in-house candidates to replace him in assistants Eric Valenzuela and Jay Johnson.

This situation must develop quickly because Hill and his wife are scheduled to leave Thursday afternoon for Jamaica, where they are leading a mission trip. We’ll have more details as they become available.