By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Former Tennessee Tech outfielder Jason Hinchman will officially embark on his Major League Baseball career after having his contract selected by the Colorado Rockies. Hinchman had previously signed in October with the Glacier Range Riders, an independent baseball team of the Pioneer League, an MLB Partner League that began play in 2022. He has been assigned to Colorado's Rookie affiliate, the ACL Rockies.
Hinchman was a three-time All-American for the Golden Eagles in 2022, collecting Second Team honors from Collegiate Baseball and Third Team accolades from both the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA).
The Winston, Ga. native spent the majority of the 2022 campaign rewriting the Tech and Ohio Valley Conference record books and establishing himself as one of the most feared power hitters of the last two decades. He capped his senior season slashing .372/.470/.758 while accounting for 86 hits, 57 runs, 73 RBI, 11 doubles, and 26 home runs.
During the season, he set the new school and league standards for career home runs, passing the old record of 62 and establishing a new mark of 70. He became just the third player in the last 20 years in Division I baseball to account for at least 70 career dingers and currently holds the collegiate record for the state of Tennessee among Division I institutions.
His 26 long balls tied for the program's single-season record with TTU Sports Hall of Famer A.J. Kirby-Jones while his 73 RBI tied for the fifth-most in school history. Only Kirby-Jones put up a higher single-season slugging percentage as well, with Hinchman's .758 trailing only AJKJ's .859 set in 2010. He joined Kirby-Jones as the only Golden Eagles to ever record multiple campaigns with 20+ round-trippers.
The slugger rounded out his five-year career, including a shortened 2020 campaign due to COVID-19, first in program history in home runs (70), third in slugging percentage (.668), fourth in walks (127), fifth in RBI (185), seventh in runs scored (173), tied for 12th in hits (211), 19th in on-base percentage (.426).
Hinchman also finished second in multi-home run games (7), tied for third in grand slams (3), fourth in total bases (455), fifth in sacrifice flies (11), and ninth in both games played (189) and started (179). He was a two-time All-OVC First Team honoree, once at first base (2019) and once in the outfield (2022).
During his career, he earned four OVC Player of the Week nods and three National Player of the Week honors from Collegiate Baseball. He also ranks as the only Golden Eagle to hit three home runs in a single game more than once, accomplishing the feat three times while donning the purple and gold.
File photo by Thomas Corhern
