What made the Austin Peay baseball team of the early-2010s so special—aside from a unique ability to hand out smiles to the fans and butt-kickings to whatever team was unfortunate enough to be visiting Raymond C. Hand Park that weekend—was how well every player knew, adapted, owned and shaped their role.
Greg Bachman was the dirt-faced grinder who did everything to win. PJ Torres was the heady catcher who had the trust of an entire staff. Tyler Rogers got the ball in the ninth and plunged a stake into the heart of opponents. Reed Harper was the unflappable constant, every single day. Casey Delgado was the bulldog at the front of the rotation. Matt Wollenzin was Dan, which was its own important assignation. Kacy Kemmer did a little of everything. You get the idea.
Where did Jordan Hankins fit into the scope of this juggernaut? That's a little harder to define, because Hankins himself was so hard to define as a ballplayer.
The obvious was that Hankins could hit. Just rake. At all times. Preternaturally blessed with impeccable hand-eye coordination, Hankins could sit back on a pitch and lash it to any field, the epitome of a hit-'em-where-they-ain't hitter who remains the only player on Austin Peay's top-10 in hits who played just three seasons—a fourth Hankins season could have easily yielded the first and only player with 300 hits at Austin Peay.
At 5-10, Hankins wasn't the prototypical big-bopper, but he remains one of just six players in program history with multiple seasons of double-digit home runs. Four players in program history finished their careers with more than 150 runs and 150 RBI—10 points to you if you guessed that Hankins was one such luminary. And thanks both to his own success and the success of the team during the greatest stretch in program history, Hankins is one of four Govs with multiple All-Region honors at various NCAA Tournament sites; we'll get to that.
But… that doesn't quite cover it either. Yes, Hankins was very good in a, "Wow, your stats leap off the back of the baseball card," kind of way. Many (okay, some) can make that claim. What separates Hankins was a sort of je ne sais quoi unique to the sport and the ballplayer, the aura of inevitable success surrounding him that made him an obvious talent in a team chock full of absolute studs. As a ballplayer, as a person… you've either got that, or you don't. Hankins had it, whatever It is, in spades.
Hankins never beat himself—he walked more often than he struck out during his career.
Hankins never hung his head—he could go 0-for-4 on Friday night and still be in the running for Player of the Week honors after spectacular games on Saturday and Sunday.
Hankins was always in a great mood—the omnipresent smile lit up the clubhouse, a beacon of constancy during a long season of ups and downs. That can't be quantified in stats, but its importance could never be accurately measured anyway.
Hankins won—of all the greats to pass through during Austin Peay's three-peat, he's the only one who can boast that all his season's ended with dogpiles on the field in Jackson to celebrate another title, an NCAA Tournament watch party and a trip to a Regional.
Can baseball have glue guys? The guy who helps hold it all together, does a thousand little things that contribute to winning even if their number in the order only comes up every so often and they might go innings at a time without fielding a ball? If baseball can have glue guys, Jordan Hankins might have been the ultimate glue guy.
(By the way, in over 800 career chances in the field, Hankins only committed 27 errors. The nerve of this guy and his ability to continually do his job at the highest level, I tell ya.)
If it feels like Hankins always saved his best for May and June, there might be some truth to that. In 2011, as a precocious freshman, it was Hankins' seventh-inning solo home run that lifted the Govs to their first-ever opening round win, against host Georgia Tech. The next year, he garnered his first All-Region honor by hitting .400 with six RBI at the Eugene Regional in Oregon, then made it two in a row the following year in Bloomington.
When the Govs were at their best, so was Hankins. That can't be a coincidence.
He didn't just represent Austin Peay; the Wentzville, Missouri native would eventually go international, joining USA Baseball for the summer after his sophomore season and earning bronze for the Collegiate National Team at the 26th Annual Haarlem Baseball Week in The Netherlands. He also played for Team USA when it squared off against the Cuban National Team in Havana.
After the 2013 season, Hankins was an 11th-round draft pick by the Chicago Cubs, and he spent three seasons in their organization. It was the highest an Austin Peay position player had been drafted since 1996; none have been chosen as highly since (yet).
