[00:00:14] Speaker A: Hello. Welcome to the Roundhouse podcast with Paul Solentrop of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. Thanks for your time. We appreciate you listening. Today we're going to talk shocker softball with East Herring. Easton is the newest addition to the Wichita State softball coaching staff. He returned to Wichita State in July after spending a year at Austin P in Clarksville, Tennessee. Right?
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Yes, sir.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: As an assistant coach there. He also coached as a volunteer for Virginia Tech Softball, and his roots as a Shocker go back to him being graduate manager and a volunteer assistant for the Wichita State baseball team. Easton played two seasons of baseball at Newman University. You may know his last name from his sister Neely, who was an excellent first baseman hitter. She played softball for the Shockers. Easton, tell us about coming back to Wichita State. What got you back here?
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Yeah, so for me, Wichita's home. My wife and I met in Wichita.
Me going to Newman University just right across town, probably about ten or 15 minutes away.
My wife was undergrad at Wichita State, and we met through a group of friends, and then obviously, after I got done playing, got an opportunity to go and be a part of the baseball team in Wichita State and get my masters. And so it's really fortunate that we could stay in Wichita and obviously get to come back home after four or five years down the road. And so it was just really awesome. I mean, both of our families are around here within a couple of hour drive. So with us having a new little baby boy and us getting to come back home, it's just been the best of both worlds.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: So you played baseball high school at Pratt High School, right?
[00:02:03] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: From 2011 2013, you hit nine triples one season. That was a state record, I discovered, until 2021. Someone from Fraughtenac hit a couple more. You have 19 career triples, and that's still a record according to the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. So I'm curious, did Pratt not have fences? Did the ball just roll and roll? How did you hit so many?
[00:02:26] Speaker B: Know, I just kind of took my mindset of like, I guess just driving the ball in the gap and I could run a little bit back in the day.
Probably not as much now, but I think I would just hit the ball and just automatically think in my mind like, I'm going to three and just try and push bags as much as possible. And high school baseball kids, looking back, I don't think we could play as well of catch, but I feel like just pushing the bags as much as possible. I didn't know I still had the record, actually. So that's pretty crazy.
That's almost, what, ten years ago, and nobody's broken it. I think they extended the games in the Kansas high school sports realm, I guess in high school baseball, I don't know what they're extending it to. But they were talking about maybe getting to play 25 to 30 games just recently.
[00:03:22] Speaker A: I think they added five or six.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: To the season going forward.
[00:03:25] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: So hopefully that record stays intact. I think it's pretty cool. And maybe my son, Cannon, whenever he gets to high school, he can try and break my records.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: Triples are hard to get. Do you ever pull that out as a trump card at a coaching meeting? Do you say, Well, Christy or Elizabeth, we could do it this way, but I'm the career triples leader in the state of Kansas. Maybe we ought to do it my way?
[00:03:46] Speaker B: No.
One of our managers actually mentioned seeing my name on our record board at Pratt because he went to Pratt or had a sibling that went to Pratt. And we were talking, and I asked him where he was from, and he said he went to Coyote County, which is in Greensburg.
And he said, yeah, I know who you are. And I'm like, okay, where do you know me from? And he mentioned seeing my name up on one of the record boards for triples, and he knew I hit nine, I guess, in one year and then hit 19 in a career of three years.
So I just thought that was pretty cool, too.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: Pretty good. Pratt. The greenbacks. Right.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: One of the great high school nicknames in the state of Kansas. Easton, tell us about your journey into coaching. Why did you choose this profession?
[00:04:38] Speaker B: I'd probably say that it was my dad and my grandpa were the two people that kind of got me into coaching just growing up. Going to the Chandler baseball camp down in Oklahoma, year in and year out when I was a little kid and getting to be around guys like Mark Howard and people who have passed on, I guess, the game.
And so I think those are the people who got me into coaching, helping kids.
I had some really good coaches growing up and in high school, too, that mentored me in a certain way, whether that be football, basketball, baseball coaches.
Hi.
[00:05:42] Speaker C: This is Rick Muma, president of Wichita State University. Check out the latest episode of the Forward Together podcast. Each episode, I sit down with different guests from Shocker Nation to celebrate the vision and mission of Wichita State University. Listen, wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: All right, we're back with Easton Herring of the Shocker softball program. Easton, you were telling us about your journey into the coaching world.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Yeah, so obviously, growing up, my dad, my grandpa, being my coach in Little League and a little bit after that as well, and then having siblings that are younger than me, obviously, Neely getting to be a college softball player here at Wichita State.
I felt like every time I was in the cage, she was right there behind know, whether it was watch me hit play, travel ball, whatever it may be. So I feel like I was almost just born into it.
So, yeah, obviously being named Easton Too after a baseball bat, it kind of just felt right, I guess.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: So you mentioned your dad and your grandfather and their influence coaching mentors, who's really influenced you, how you coach and why you do this.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: Again, I would probably mention my dad, my grandpa. I would even throw my stepdad in there. He was my high school baseball coach while I was at Pratt.
Each one of those guys, they mentored me and molded me into who I was. Today, I've been really fortunate enough to work with a lot of really good human beings and really good coaches.
Being at Wichita State on the baseball side of things, I would say Mike Siriani as well, just getting to understand and to learn how to recruit and the right people to recruit and that type of stuff. And obviously being at Virginia Tech under Pete Demor and getting to work under Cassie Stanfield at Austin P as mean, I think I've taken a piece of something from each program that I've worked under and then obviously getting to work under Christie here and Coach E.
They're two of the best in the business, in my opinion just because of what they have done here at Wichita State in the last seven to ten years.
From the development side of things, obviously, they've won a few games in the last few years as well, and a few championships. So it's been really special to get to pick the brains of each person that I've stopped at, I guess.
[00:08:47] Speaker A: Mike Sirianni was a assistant baseball coach here at Wichita State for several years now at Nebraska. Easton, you played catcher in college.
That position seems to really help people who want to coach. Why is that?
[00:09:01] Speaker B: I think being a catcher, you kind of have to know everything that's going on.
So from that, just being able to command a pitching staff, I wasn't a very good hitter. I'll be 100% honest. Obviously, I do have a high school career, triples record or whatever.
But from the hitting side of things, when I got into college, wasn't my strong suit. I was more of a defensive catcher, could manage a game, be a leader from that role, not only vocally, but set an example of how things needed to be done and really carry over that blue collar work ethic from a player to a coaching perspective. As yeah.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: So you take the job at Wichita State in July. You've got a pretty good comfort zone because you've spent years here at Wichita State. What take us through the first days or weeks? How do you get acclimated? How do you get up and running in a new coaching position?
[00:10:04] Speaker B: I would probably say just making sure my family is in check and good to go. We moved halfway across the country from Tennessee with four dogs and a month old baby and my wife. And obviously just making sure everybody is taken care of from that side of things. Plus finding a place to live was a little stressful but we ended up making it happen and fortunately we knew the areas in Wichita where we wanted to live and where we didn't want to live.
And then the other side of it too is one of my sisters on my mom's side is a real estate agent here in Wichita.
So she helped us along the way. She was awesome.
And then from the softball side getting acclimated.
As soon as I took the job, Christy put me on the road. So I went to California out there for five days and got after it a little bit, saw some really good kids and we just hit the ground running with everything. So it's been really good trying to build relationships with the kids as much as possible. That's that's one thing that I'm trying to do as quick as possible just because obviously once you get those kids on your side and once they trust you, the sky's the limit. Essentially from the development standpoint, coaches, families.
[00:11:39] Speaker A: I'm glad you brought that up. No matter the sport, no matter the family situation, that's always a part of the picture that we don't talk about a lot. They are uprooted, moving around, all those kind of things. That's definitely part of the job. You mentioned building relationships, getting softball players to trust you. How do you do that?
[00:12:00] Speaker B: You get to know them. Obviously all of them are good softball players or they wouldn't be here.
So you get to know them off the field as well.
We actually had a dinner the other night. We're doing this as a coaching staff, all four of the coaches.
We're having four or five girls over at each one of our houses every couple of weeks just to get to know them, get to get them a home cooked meal.
I wanted to have a little competition for the girls after we had ate dinner the other night with a little game of Mario Kart on our TV.
But I was having some technical difficulties.
Our charger for our little Nintendo thing wasn't working correctly so we had to kind of scrap that. We ended up watching volleyball. I think we had a couple girls from Nebraska that were at the house.
We ended up watching the Nebraska volleyball game, which was pretty good.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: You're talking about the football, the one they played in the football stadium.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: I don't remember if it was that one or not.
It might have been the week after that one, but I think it was a top ten matchup. Again, obviously they're pretty good at volleyball. They were fun to watch.
[00:13:26] Speaker A: You will specialize on defense with Shocker softball.
Tell us favorite ways. How do you go about getting people to catch softballs, throw softballs, be in the right place at the right time, all that.
[00:13:38] Speaker B: Yeah. So I think it starts with catch play.
Just taking that serious every single day. It's something that's really overlooked, in my opinion. I'll go to travel ball tournaments and kids just kind of play catch to get warm. They don't necessarily do it to get better. And so I think getting our kids to understand, hey, this 1015 minutes period to start our day off is really important.
And so I think that's kind of a staple and a non negotiable from our side of things. And then obviously everything else from a developmental standpoint of, hey, this is how we need to feel ground ball. This is how we need to approach things and have a mindset out in the outfield of flying around, making sure everything that's in the green or in the grass is caught and having that fearless mentality.
And then obviously, from a defensive side of thing, make sure we know where we're supposed to be and when we're supposed to be there, from cuts and relays standpoint and first and thirds, and we're still going over all that stuff.
I've kind of flown in Coach B's back pocket, just making sure she and I are on the same page with everything and how she wants certain things done.
And so that's kind of how we get those kids on the same page with us.
[00:15:06] Speaker A: And I guess we should mention so baseball and softball programs are now allowed a third full time assistant coach. So the Wichita State coaching staff is Elizabeth economy. People probably know her. Also knew as pitching coach Courtney Oliver and then Easton. So that's why if you think there are more assistant coaches running around out there, you are correct. So you played baseball. You worked with a Shocker baseball team from 2018 to 2021. Why did you switch to softball?
[00:15:34] Speaker B: I get this question asked a lot, and it's been the exact same answer. Girls listen a lot better than guys do, plain and simple. Obviously, from the game side of things, the game's so much faster. I remember last year when I was at Austin P, I think we were playing Queens and North Carolina and Charlote, and I think we played two games by the time the baseball team had played.
So just, again, just the speed of the game.
And I enjoy softball a lot more than I enjoyed baseball, being able to watch my sister play and kind of grow up and do that. I didn't really understand it exactly because I was a baseball guy through and through, but once I got a taste of the softball side of things from a coaching perspective in the first base box and getting to do those things, and I'm never going back.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: So the Shockers were an excellent defensive team last season. They ranked third nationally in 984 fielding percentage. I don't know if that stat means everything or what your thoughts are on that, but they were pretty good defensively on the infield, you've got Sammy Hood back. She was great at second base. Will probably playstop third baseman Kristen Nelson's back, catcher Lainey Brown is back.
What does that mean for the fall? How are you approaching working with this group, which was pretty good last year and has some experience back both on the infield and the outfield?
[00:17:15] Speaker B: Yeah, we got a lot of good key think, you know, working with these kids again, going back to the relationships, just trying to get them to trust me and to trust the process of everything and being top five in the country from a defensive perspective and being a new defensive coach coming in. Obviously the things that Coach B and them were doing in the past have worked. So I'm not in here to try and just throw things on the wall and say, hey, let's do this completely different because what they've been doing in the past has been working. So I brought a few new ideas and tweaking some things here and there, which is always good.
So I think just coming in here and getting those kids on my side as quick as possible, it's going to almost jumpstart our development from the defensive side of things a little bit better.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: Sammy Hood was just a lot of fun to watch last year defensively at second base. What have you noticed about her? What makes her a good defensive infielder?
[00:18:27] Speaker B: She is athletic as can be.
She's really fun to watch. She's got a strong arm, pretty good glove. Still working on her lower half, trying to get her to get that backside through. On throwing balls over to first base, she tends to use her arm a lot, which is okay because she does have a really strong arm. But to kind of hone in on the accuracy side of things, if we get her using her lower half, she'd be a heck of a lot better, which is unbelievable to say for her because she had a really good freshman year. I think she was defensive Player of the Year in the conference, which is awesome. And so getting her to switch from second to short and hopefully be an everyday person over there at short for us would be ideal.
So, yeah, I'm ecstatic to have a kid like her over there.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: Describe fall practices so far. What's been the emphasis?
[00:19:28] Speaker B: Fall practice, just making sure we're doing the right things and taking care of business.
We had a scrimmage the other day against McLennan, really good ball club. I think they played in the national championship game of the JUCO World Series either last year or the year before that. So a really good ball club. Obviously them coming in here and kind of giving us a little run for our money at the beginning of the game was really good for us. And just getting to compete against somebody else in New Jersey, I think that was really beneficial. For just just doing the right things, taking care of what we need to take care of in order to get where we want to go at the end of the year.
[00:20:22] Speaker A: What did you learn about this team from the scrimmage against McClellan?
[00:20:27] Speaker B: I learned that we're not as far off as we necessarily thought. We know, obviously, watching our kids scrimmage and in practice, and you don't really know until you go against somebody else. I think we'll have a really good test this weekend.
Friday we go up against Seminole State, another good junior college team, and then obviously Kansas on Sunday.
They're going to be a really good ball club. That's a big twelve team that we fight and claw against each year.
From a defensive side of things, I don't think we had an error, which is obviously great to see in ten innings of play. I did mention to the girls that we need to clean up some things in between innings. Just throwing the ball around a little bit after a strikeout or after an out. We do throw it around the horn, and I think we threw one ball into left field, which again, we practice that.
We just try to do the little things correct.
[00:21:35] Speaker A: So shockers play seminole State at five on Friday. They play the University of Kansas in a doubleheader at 01:00 P.m on Sunday. So if you're a fan and you're coming out Easton, give them a couple of tips. Who are maybe some of the newcomers that they should keep an eye on.
[00:21:51] Speaker B: CC. Wong has been awesome for us.
Left handed hitter, probably going to play some third base, play some second base, has a ton of pop. She's a transfer, like you said. Returner Sammy Hood. She's fun to watch.
Trying to get Addie Barnard healthy coming off of surgery, obviously, but those three, for sure, really like our freshman pitchers. I think Coach O has done a phenomenal job in the bullpen with our pitching staff.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: Let me get a name here. Chloe is one of them, right?
[00:22:35] Speaker B: Chloe and Erica.
[00:22:36] Speaker A: And Chloe Barber and Erica. What's her last name here? For the fans I'm paging through the Erica shirts.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:22:44] Speaker A: Chloe Barber. Homered against McClellan.
[00:22:47] Speaker B: She did. She did. We're still trying to get Chloe to warm up a little bit and kind of come out of her shell, but she did hit a home run, which was awesome to see.
She's our only two way pitcher, but she's got a ton of potential. Big Kid 511. I believe.
Throws pretty good. I think she was up to 65 the other day.
And then obviously Erica, she was pretty dominant in her outing as well.
[00:23:22] Speaker A: Okay, we'll wrap it up. Do you have a movie recommendation? A book you're reading? Netflix series? What would you tell the people to enjoy when they're not thinking about Shocker softball?
[00:23:32] Speaker B: The other day, my wife and I sat down after we put Cannon to bed and we got about ten minutes into the Kelsey it's called Kelsey. It's on Amazon Prime. I believe it's about the Kelsey brothers.
[00:23:50] Speaker A: Of NFL fame, Travis and Jason.
[00:23:52] Speaker B: Yes, NFL. We got about ten minutes into that before Cannon woke up. Luckily, we put him back to bed and got to finish it, so it was really cool. You got to kind of see outside of the player side of things, I guess, so travis and Jason interacting with their families and all the rehab and their stories from coming out of college and high school into the pro side of things, and really good documentary.
[00:24:26] Speaker A: Okay. Easton Herring, assistant softball coach for Wichita State Shockers, play twice this weekend to continue their fall scrimmages. They've got Seminole State out of Oklahoma Friday at five, and they've got the University of Kansas Jayhawks at 01:00 on Sunday Eastern. Thanks for your time.
[00:24:44] Speaker B: Awesome. Thank you.
[00:25:00] Speaker D: Thank you for listening to the Roundhouse podcast, courtesy of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. We encourage you to rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can find more roundhouse
[email protected] malcolm out near the timeline. Left side of the floor to Baker. Ron works deeper to the wing, fires a three.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: Good.
[00:25:21] Speaker D: Ron Baker with his third three point field goal of the game. Wichita State goes ahead by four.
