In 1970, his senior season, he won 11 games with a 1.26 ERA in 106 innings, earning him first-team all-conference, All-NAIA and Player of the Year honors from the SCIAC.

He played two seasons of minor league baseball with the Baltimore Orioles organization, first with the Aberdeen Pheasants in 1970 and Stockton Ports in 1971.

Kernen helped to turn the Titans into a perennial postseason contender winning the Big West Conference 5 straight seasons, including trips to the College World Series in 1979 and 1982, with the Titans winning the national championship in the 1979 season.

[5] This effort earned Kernen the Division II West Region Coach of the Year honors.

[1] In 1991, the first year of Division I play for the Matadors, Kernen led CSUN to a 44–18–1 record, the West Regional championship game and a #10 ranking in the final NCAA Division I poll, only the second time in NCAA baseball history a first year team finished in the Top 10, the other being Augie Garrido's Cal State Fullerton team in 1975.

[1] In August 1995, Kernen resigned from Cal State Northridge to pursue a career in theater in New York City.

[13] In 2007, Kernen returned to Cal State Fullerton, this time as a volunteer assistant coach on a team that made the College World Series.

[15][16] In its debut season of 2009, Cal State Bakersfield defeated defending College World Series champions Fresno State three out of five times to become the first-ever first-year Division I baseball team to defeat a defending national champion.

[23] During Kernen's seven seasons, Cal State Bakersfield went 197–198–1 and produced 15 players selected in the Major League Baseball Draft.

Conference tournament champion After coaching at Cal State Northridge, Kernen left college baseball to pursue a career in theatre and film.