This season, Hunter Hines has been walking up to bat to “Doubt Me Now” by Cody Johnson. After making Mississippi State history, not many people doubt him any more.
Hines enters the NCAA baseball tournament as the program’s all-time leader in home runs. He has hit 69 heading into the tournament, two more than the previous record-holder, Rafael Palmeiro.
“It means a whole lot to me. Going through the whole season, looking at it and finally getting it done, that means a lot,” Hines said. “Looking at who held it before me and all the greats that have played here. It’s awesome.
Richard Hunter Hines’s baseball journey started in his front yard in Madison, Mississippi – roughly 120 miles from Starkville – playing baseball with his father, Rich Hines. Rich played college ball at Ole Miss in the late 1980s, then eight seasons of minor league baseball in the New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves organizations in the 90s.
Those catches in the front yard led to years of school and summer league baseball for Hines. He played high school ball with Madison Central and won a state championship his senior year. He was the No. 17 player in the state for the Class of 2021, according to Perfect Game.
Hines had just three offers to play college baseball, two from Division I programs and one from Mississippi College in Division II. However, among the offers was Mississippi State, which he had grown up wanting to play for all his life.
“Not many people get to watch their dreams come true and let it unfold in their lives,” he said. “So it’s a pretty cool experience, especially experiencing with my family and my teammates and everybody that’s been there for me.”
It didn’t take long for Hines to make a good impression at Dudy Noble Field.
He slugged 16 home runs and drove in 52 runs his freshman year in 2022, both second on the team. He then led the Bulldogs with 22 homers and 61 RBIs in his sophomore year.
“I trained a lot the summer before. I was ready to come here and perform early as a freshman,” he said. “I had a really good fall, and I think my size helped me being a bigger player, being able to drive the ball. It gave me a good head start coming in as a freshman.”
It was at some point in his junior year that Hines realized he had a chance to break the program’s home run record, which, at that point, had stood since 1985 when Palmeiro broke it. The record, and more, was one of many factors that led Hines to forgo the MLB Draft and come back for his senior year.
The pursuit of that record stayed in the back of his mind early in the season, at which point power seemed to elude him. By the end of the year, he had caught it.
Hines finished the year hitting seven home runs in the final 12 games of MSU’s regular season. This included four home runs in State’s last series at Missouri. He hit two in one inning of the opener to tie Palmeiro.
Then in the second game on May 16, with one out in the top of the sixth of a game the Bulldogs led 9-3, Hines launched home run No. 68 over the wall in right field.
“It took until the last weekend, but when I finally did it, it was like a weight lifted off me,” Hines said. “It felt really good.”
‘You can never quit’
Hines grew in many ways as a Mississippi State Bulldog. He did much of it through the adversity he faced throughout his career, which taught him to never give up, especially when mired in slumps.
“You’re going to have your stretches where you just want to quit, but you can’t, and that’s what so good about baseball and it can teach you in life is that you can never quit,” he said. “You’re never going to get out of it unless you work and get out of it yourself. That’s the best thing I’ve learned in my time up here.”
Hines went back to his father as someone who has been a major help throughout his baseball career. Whether it’s helping him out in batting practice or calling him when he is playing on the road, Rich’s compassion, knowledge of Hunter’s game and more have been big reasons for Hunter’s success.
“I can’t really think if I could have done it without him,” Hines said. “Just because of how many times we’ve come up here and hit before a game day or before a weekend, or how many times we’ve talked about my swing, or how many times we’ve practiced it. It’s crazy, honestly.
“I don’t think I would break the home run record without him.”
There’s still more work for Hines and the Bulldogs to do.
Mississippi State is headed to the Tallahassee Regional this weekend. Other participating teams include Bethune-Cookman, No. 19 Northeastern and host No. 9 Florida State. The Bulldogs open against Northeastern on Friday at 6:30 p.m.
For Hines and the Diamond Dawgs, the goal is simple; leave it all out there.
“It’s the last run for me. It’s the last run for a lot of guys on the team,” he said. “So just, when we go out there, just leave it in between the lines. We’re playing with house money, so if we just go play hard, we can play with anybody in the country.”
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
