Manager Jordan Smith Headlines Several Returners to Field Staff

The Lynchburg Hillcats are excited to announce their field staff for the 2025 season.

Jordan Smith will once again return as manager for this season. Also returning to the coaching staff are bench coach Erlin Cerda, hitting coach Cole Nieto, strength & conditioning coordinator Jack Baldwin, and athletic trainer Yuka Ogata. Joining them are pitching coach Shane McCarthy, assistant hitting coach Amanda Kamekona, assistant athletic trainer Patrick Reynolds, and development coach Gustavo Nava.

Smith returns for his third season at the helm of the Hillcats. Last season, he guided the team to a 67-62 record, finishing second in the first half and fourth overall in the Carolina League North Division. In 2023, he finished 67-64, third in the division.

A native of Wilmar, Minnesota, Smith’s coaching experience began following the conclusion of his playing career, of which he spent its entirety in the Cleveland Guardians organization. He began his coaching career in 2019 as the bench coach of the Lake County Captains, where he returned to the same role in 2021.

Cerda will enter year two of his stint in Lynchburg, serving as the bench coach under Smith in 2024. A native of the Dominican Republic, he entered the coaching ranks in 2023, in the same position with the Guardians complex league team.

He spent a portion of the 2018 season with the Hillcats as a player, hitting .252 with 12 triples.

McCarthy spent the 2024 season working in the Arizona Complex League as the pitching coach. He retired in 2023 after spending the entirety of his playing career with the Cleveland organization, reaching as high as Double-A Akron. He finished his career with a Minor League stat line of 8-7 with a 3.36 ERA.

Upon graduating from Seton Hall in 2018 with a degree in Business Administration and Management, McCarthy was drafted in the 18th round by the Cleveland Indians. He played four years for the Seton Hall Pirates, including one finish on the All-Big East first team in 2016.

Also returning to the staff is Cole Nieto, the teams hitting coach. Under Nieto, the Hillcats led the league in doubles (209), triples (48), and walks (593). The team also finished second in on-base percentage (.347) and slugging (.363), and third in batting average (.247).

A northeast Ohio native, Nieto played his college ball at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio. Following his playing career, Nieto would go on to serve as an assistant coach at the University of Dubuque in Iowa.

Assisting him will be Amanda Kamekona, a former UCLA softball player. She spent last season working on the staff in Akron, where the team led the Eastern League in triples (31). “AK” was hired in 2023 by the Guardians organization, the first woman to be hired to an on-field coaching position in the organization.

Graduating as a Bruin 2009, she was named to the all-PAC-10 first-team and was a third-team All-American. As a junior, she led UCLA in home runs (14), RBIs (46), runs scored (47), doubles (17), and slugging percentage (.663).

Returning as the strength and conditioning coordinator will be Jack Baldwin. In his first season with the Guardians organization, he was assigned to Lynchburg, where he oversaw the training regiments for the team, working heavily with speed and agility.

Prior to joining the organization, Baldwin was a performance coach in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated with a degree in applied exercise science from Springfield College before pursuing a master’s degree in sport psychology from Cal State Long Beach.

Yuka Ogata will return as the lead athletic trainer for the Hillcats. She spent the entirety of the 2024 season in Lynchburg, having spent 2023 with the Lake County Captains.

Ogata graduated from Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan in 2018 before completing her master’s degree in Athletic Training from the University of Arkansas.

Joining Ogata will be Patrick Reynolds, the new assistant athletic trainer. Reynolds is rejoining the Guardians organization after working from 2018-2022 in the same role before leaving for the University of Maryland.

After graduating from the University of Delaware in 2016 with a degree in athletic training, Reynolds went on to study sports management at East Tennessee State University.

Rounding out the field staff for 2025 is Gustavo Nava. Nava, a native of Maracaibo, Venezuela, began his collegiate career in 2019 with the University of Rio Grande in Ohio. He would eventually transfer and finish his playing career at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

This will be his first season in the Guardians organization.

The new field staff will begin the 2025 Lynchburg Hillcats season on Friday, April 4, against the Fayetteville Woodpeckers. They will return home on Tuesday, April 8, against the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers.