It’s early February at Pitt Community College, and the unmistakable ‘ping’ of a composite bat hitting a baseball cuts through the air at Minges-Overton Baseball Complex. For Tommy Eason, it’s another day at the office, as he prepares for the 2023 season. The former minor leaguer has led the Bulldogs since 2005 – and it’s been a remarkable run. He’s won more than 500 games, and well over 100 of his players have moved on to the NCAA and/or professional level. Two – Lonnie Chisenhall and Jeff Ferrell – reached the Major Leagues.
Eason, a former catcher/first baseman, says player development is the best part of coaching, along with teaching players how to become model citizens.
Tommy Eason
“For me, (success) is earning respect from the players and being respected by opposing teams and coaches, because they know Pitt does it the right way,” Eason says.
Though he can’t recall the first time he played baseball, Eason knows it was in the Greene County neighborhood of his youth, where he and his friends dreamed of becoming Major Leaguers. For Eason, Philadelphia’s Mike Schmidt was his favorite. He never got his autograph but did meet Schmidt as a member of the Phillies organization.
After starring at Greene Central High School, Eason took his baseball talent to East Carolina University (ECU). Following his junior season in 1991, Philadelphia drafted him in the sixth round.
Over four minor league seasons, Eason hit .285 with 30 homers and 145 RBIs, before diabetes ended his playing career. He’d returned to ECU when his first coaching opportunity arose.
“After minor league baseball, I went back to school to finish my undergraduate degree and was approached by Keith LeClair to join his staff, and the rest is history,” Eason said. “As an assistant, I was a sponge — always listening and soaking in as much as I could ….”
After one season as a graduate assistant, Eason spent the next seven as the Pirates’ pitching coach. In that time, five of his pitchers earned All-America honors and three pitching staffs finished among the NCAA’s ERA leaders. Eason was also inducted into ECU’s Athletics Hall of Fame.
As Pitt’s head coach, Eason says his greatest accomplishment has been taking the Bulldogs to the NJCAA World Series in 2010 and 2017. He’s earned so many awards, including the N.C. Baseball Coaches Association’s 2010 Coach of the Year, that he makes “taking 30 players and figuring out how to gel them into a team pulling on the same end of the rope” look easy.
The 52-year-old Eason says successful coaches lead by example, study the game continuously to learn new ways of teaching it, and adapt to technology. It’s a recipe that’s led to a 67% winning percentage (522-251) entering the 2023 season.
While many dream of a sports career, Eason made it a reality by “getting to know the right people, being persistent, and treating people the way I want to be treated.” For anyone hoping to follow in his footsteps, he says, “Be patient, and be willing to put in a lot of work that goes unnoticed.”
