As you've likely heard, we don't have any live-action contests to cover at LetsGoPeay.com right now. What we do have is free time; oodles and oodles of free time. Enough free time to swap oodles of emails with various people who would know to create a snapshot of the 10 best players in Austin Peay baseball history. As we begin our look at baseball, we start with one of the most talented infielders who ever graced the diamond at Raymond C. Hand Park.
Jordan Hankins could tear the cover off the ball. (As a batter, as a ballplayer,)? he had few peers. And he was among the leaders during the greatest stretch of baseball in Austin Peay history.
Hankins put together a three-year stretch that saw him help lead the Govs to three consecutive Ohio Valley Conference Tournament titles, as he hit .346 and earned a trio of All-OVC honors. He finished among the all-time Top 10 in hits, average, on-base percentage, runs scored and walks despite playing just three seasons. Never renowned as a big bopper, Hankins nonetheless remains one of six players in program history with multiple seasons with 10 or more home runs.
It seemed like he always came up big when the Govs were playing in the NCAA Tournament. In 2011, his seventh-inning solo home run gave the Govs the win against host Georgia Tech – their first-ever opening-round victory. The next season, he hit .400 with six RBI, including a three-run home run against the host Ducks, in the Eugene, Oregon Regional to earn All-Region honors. Hankins followed that up with a second All-Region honor the following year in Bloomington. He's currently the only player in program history with multiple All-Region honors.
Between his sophomore and junior seasons, Hankins was tabbed to represent USA Baseball, where he was a member of the bronze-medal winning Collegiate National Team at the 26th Annual Haarlem Baseball Week in the Netherlands and played the Cuban National team in Havana, Cuba.
Following the 2013 season, Hankins was an 11th-round draft pick by the Chicago Cubs—the highest an Austin Peay position player since 1996; he played in the Cubs system for three seasons.
