by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
While Eric Hinostroza’s first year at Kansas City Kansas Community College wasn’t anything he wanted to write home about, he couldn’t wait to get back
“School was not a priority,” admitted Hinostroza, who was a member of the Blue Devil baseball team during most of the 2013-2014 season. “I was able to balance baseball and partying but not academics.”
Eventually he would quit baseball, return to his home in Brandon, Florida, and enlist in the U.S. Army. Fast forward four years. Honorably discharged in 2018 after serving a four-year hitch in Fort Stewart, Georgia, and married with a son, Hinostroza returned to KCKCC.
“I left but I never left KCKCC; I was always a part of it,” he said today.
He returned the spring semester of 2018, a changed man re-taking classes in the spring and summer to regain his eligibility for the fall baseball season.
“My priorities changed drastically,” he said. “In the fall I had a daughter (Elicia) and family came first, then school. I made sure I was passing all my classes so it would set me up to continue my education after KCKCC. After practice I would go straight home. I spent the whole summer and fall working out. In the fall, I stayed after class. I was on the GI Bill and if I failed a class, I was going to have to pay it back. I was not going to fail.”
He did not, compiling a cumulative grade point average over three semesters of better than 3.0. He also excelled on the baseball field, leading the Blue Devils in hitting with a .359 batting average. Playing mostly first base but some left field, he committed just four errors in a 312 total chances for a gaudy .988 fielding percentage.
“I underestimated him both on and off the field,” KCKCC head baseball coach Matt Goldbeck said. “He called and asked to come back. I wasn’t sure but I couldn’t have asked for a better leader. Our players looked up to him and he helped set a higher standard for the team. On the field he had a great season, saving countless errors at first base for our infielders with picks and his footwork.”
Goldbeck was an assistant coach when Hinostroza first arrived.
“He was a good player for us then but young and immature, trying to figure things out,” he said. “He didn’t finish the season. I was a little unsure when he came back but I believe in second chances in the right circumstances. I felt like he had unfinished business here. I also admire those who serve their county and believed that even if he wasn’t able to play for us, he could help open his teammates’ eyes to the real world and let them know it’s a privilege to play the game and should not be taken for granted.”
An all-district player in high school, Hinostroza was recommended to the KCKCC coaching staff by his high school coach who at one time had roomed with then Blue Devil assistant coach Damian Stambersky. A starter in left field, he hit .289 but played in only 43 games in what turned into a bizarre 62-game season (39-23).
“Experiencing college was different,” he said. “I was pretty much being a cool guy; cool outside of baseball and partying. But it took away from my school work. I flunked two classes and had to take two winter classes and barely passed. I just played baseball; never really went to class. It affected my play on the field.”
He got what should have been a wake-up call in a doubleheader at Highland.
“A teacher dropped me from class and I missed the whole series,” he said. He returned to the lineup in time to help the Blue Devils sweep Cowley County only to be threatened with being withdrawn by a teacher who believed Hinostroza was not returning to class.
Finally, Hinostroza was put before a vote of his teammates.
“It was about me staying on the team or being kicked off because I became a liability to the team for not taking care of school,” he said. “They voted to keep me but I had trash duty for the rest of the semester. I finally stopped playing right before the regional tournament at Wichita. I wasn’t helping the team. I stopped going to baseball and class.”
Today, Hinostroza is getting ready to attend Washburn University in Topeka where his grades and play on the field have earned him a scholarship. He’ll major in forensic science with a minor in biology.
Meanwhile, his wife, the former Emily Welsh, is a couple of semesters away from earning a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Kansas. A former softball player at KCKCC, the couple has two children, son Manny, 3; and daughter Elicia, 1.
KCKCC’s season-ending loss to Barton County was both painful and emotional for Hinostroza.
“This is home; this is where I came back to. I got a second chance for sure, especially for what I went through that first year,” he said. “It was the worst of times. I did not want to see others go through what I went through. It all worked out way better than I expected. When I talked to coach (Goldbeck), his expectations were different than mine. He told me I exceeded what he expected.”
