Zama junior Kira Herring went 17-0 on the mound for the unbeaten Far East Division II Tournament champion Trojans. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Kira Herring enjoyed as much a dream season as a softball player could have.
Rallying from a 9-10 campaign in 2025, Zama came off the field victorious 30 times in 30 games in the just-completed season, and captured the Far East Division II Tournament title for the third time in school history.
Leading the way was Herring, a junior pitcher who went 17-0 on the mound, striking out 84 batters in 60 innings. She also led the Trojans in hitting with a .697 average, 2.084 OPS, 11 extra-base hits, 21 RBIs and 36 stolen bases.
And she did not strike out once in 63 plate appearances. This, despite being a self-described free swinger.
“I’m a very aggressive batter,” Herring said. “I know what’s a strike and what’s not a strike. I’m not going to let you get a strike on me, (but) I’m also not going to swing at something that’s not a strike. I’m pretty stubborn like that.”
She made adjustments at the plate. In 2025, Herring said pitchers threw mostly fastballs; this season, opposing hurlers pitched with less velocity.
“Coomparing pitchers this year to last year, I had to work on my timing with slower pitched balls,” Herring said. “The faster the pitch, the easier it was to hit; this season, it was more difficult to adjust to slower pitchers.”
But adjust she did, and the rest of the Trojans lineup followed suit. Zama outscored its opponents 385-159, an average of 12.8 to 5.3, in completing its first and only unbeaten season in school history.
For that, Herring has been named Stars and Stripes Pacific’s high school softball Athlete of the Year.
Despite the vast run differential, Zama did have its share of come-from-behind victories, including the 17-7 D-II final over Matthew C. Perry. The win that boosted Zama’s confidence most was when the Trojans beat Kubasaki, a Division I team, 11-4 at Sasebo Naval Base.
“That showed our team that regardless of division and how many (students) they had, we were able to beat a D-I team that goes against (four-time Far East D-I champion) Kadena all the time,” Herring said.
Every strong pitcher needs an able catcher, and Herring said she could not have had a better one than Evangeline Nelson, a senior whom Herring said shared a strong synergy with her.
“We just had this rhythm, I pitch, you catch, we got this,” Herring said of Nelson, a .591 hitter with a 1.555 OPS and a team-leading 127 putouts. “We became accustomed to each other’s habits. Lean head to the left, outside strike. Lean head to the right, inside strikes.”
Though she racked up quite a few strikeouts, that wasn’t the priority when she was on the mound.
“There are teammates who are going to make plays. Teammates are there supporting me. It’s just how all of us played,” Herring said.
Though the winning streak was always there, Herring said after a while, she put more focus on the game in front of her.
“We have to win this game, just go do it,” she said. “All the games we played were preparation for Far East. That was the big goal. Take the banner home. I saw every game as just a game. Either way, give it our all, try our best, show up for 90 minutes, show up for my team.”
Always present in Herring’s mind in each game was the memory of her mother, Kanae, who passed away in October 2019. “I wish she could have seen me,” Herring said. “She would have been so proud.”
Herring’s presence on the mound elevated the level of play of the rest of the team, coach Parish Jones said. “The confidence that they had in each other gave us the confidence as a team that we could do go do the job,” Jones said.
Age — 16.
Place of birth — Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan.
Other sports played — Volleyball, basketball.
Favorite school subject — Language arts, history
Least favorite school subject — Advanced placement pre-calculus.
Favorite athlete — Teagan Kavan (University of Texas softball pitcher).
Favorite forms of entertainment — Hanging out with friends, country music, romance movies and comedies.
