University of Missouri softball head coach Larissa Anderson announced June 2, 2025, the addition of assistant coach Jake Epstein. Epstein will serve as the team’s hitting coach.
Regarded as one of the top hitting instructors in the country, Epstein brings a wealth of playing and coaching experience along with familiarity to his return to Columbia, Missouri.
He spent the 2024 season as an assistant coach for South Carolina where he created and implemented the Gamecocks offensive strategy. Epstein was responsible for producing opponent scouting reports via Synergy, TruMedia, and 6-4-3 Charts along with working daily with the catchers and first basemen.
South Carolina finished the 2024 campaign with a 36-24 record and appeared in the NCAA Durham Regional Final.
For the past 20-plus years, Epstein has served as a full-time hitting instructor with professional and amateur players, while also working as a hitting consultant for the Milwaukee Brewers organization since 2018.
As the founder of the Epstein Online Hitting Academy, he has consulted with multiple Major League Baseball organizations, including the Padres, Giants, and Brewers, as well as several Power Five baseball and softball programs.
He has personally trained countless professional baseball players as well as collegiate baseball and softball student-athletes including Missouri's 2022 Rawlings Gold Glove recipient and three-time All-SEC outfielder Casidy Chaumont.
Epstein also served as Mizzou baseball's hitting coach in 2019, helping the Tigers to a 34-22-1 record. Under his tutelage, the Tigers improved in every major offensive category from the previous season. Two of his hitters were drafted during the 2019 MLB draft, with Kameron Misner being selected in the first round and Chris Cornelius in the 16th.
Epstein also enjoyed a standout playing career on the diamond, starting his collegiate career at Mizzou.
He was named a co-captain for MU in 1999 following a Big 12 All-Conference sophomore campaign in 1998. That season, he hit .319 with 10 doubles, 15 home runs, 55 RBI and a 1.105 on-base plus slugging in a powerful Tigers lineup.
Epstein was known for his light tower power at the plate, highlighted by a Big 12 Conference Championship record 576-foot home run. Following his successful three-year stint at Missouri (1997-99), Epstein transferred to Cal State Fullerton (2000) and led the Titans with nine home runs and 48 RBI while earning All-Big West Conference honors.
Following the 2000 campaign, he signed with the Anaheim Angels organization and hit .336 with 14 doubles, one triple, five home runs and 33 RBI in his lone season of professional baseball. Epstein was originally drafted in the 34th round of the 1996 MLB Draft by the San Diego Padres out of Mount Carmel High School (San Diego, California).
Epstein who was born in San Jose, California, is a 2001 graduate from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Communications.
Epstein is married to his wife, Jamie, and has three daughters - Ella, Hannah and Vivienne.
