Jake Ernd is from Munster, Indiana where he received All-State awards as a senior pitcher at Munster High School. He began his collegiate baseball career playing for Ball State University as a pitcher in 2006 as a walk-on and then transferred to Calumet College in Whiting, Indiana where he competed for one season. 

After his baseball career, Jake moved to Waterloo, Iowa in 2007 and attended the University of Northern Iowa where he received his Bachelor's Degree in Teaching in 2011. After graduating, Jake was able to coach for multiple teams in the State of Iowa, coaching as an Assistant Head Coach for the Waterloo East Trojans. After moving to Des Moines, Iowa in 2012, Jake was the Head Sophomore Coach for the Abraham Lincoln Railsplitters, and a year later became an assistant coach on the Johnston Baseball program working with the sophomore team. In 2015, Jake was promoted as the Hitting Coordinator for the entire Johnston Baseball program. 

While coaching for Johnston, Jake was able to incorporate a hitting program called Swing Faster, which helped lead the Dragons to a 41-3 season record and capturing a 4A State Championship. During that season, Johnston was second in the state with 20 HRs, first in the state with 266 RBIs, while scoring 323 Runs. Johnston also led the state with 90 Doubles and 14 Triples combining for a total of 104 Extra Base Hits, a .459 Slugging Percentage, second in the state, and an On Base Percentage of .418, sixth in the state. 

After capturing his first State Championship in 2017, Jake decided to use his Swing Faster program to begin coaching privately with baseball and softball players of all ages. During his four years of instructing hitters privately, Jake was able to work with multiple college athletes across the State of Iowa as well as professional and minor league ball players from the San Francisco Giants and the Minnesota Twins.

In 2021, he decided to resign from teaching at Johnston Middle School for 10 years to begin a business (Catching Barrels, LLC) coaching baseball and softball players. Jake is very passionate about the game of baseball and looks forward to passing on his knowledge.

To schedule a lesson with Jake: