KINGSVILLE, Texas — Texas A&M-Kingsville has announced that islanders assistant Orlando Salinas has been named the interim softball coach just two weeks into the season.
Salinas comes over after serving as an assistant for the Islanders last year and for the first part of this season.
He's a former Javelinas baseball player who played for his dad Hector Salinas back when that program was restarted back in 1993. 3News' Chris Thomasson spoke with Salinas by phone Thursday night after he had just spoken with the team and he said, "We're going to get rolling tomorrow. They just needed a breath of fresh air. I feel like I'm being called home. I'm following in my dad's footsteps."
Salinas will remain coach the rest of the season as he takes over for Doug Eastman who was just hired back in August after coming over from Arizona where he coached junior college softball.
The university has not given a reason for Eastman's removal from the dugout.