When Steve Glenn took over as the head baseball coach at Nevada in 2022, he had heard about the prolific play of a young eighth-grader named Drake Hinson.
Hinson had been showing off elite skill for his age, and with the Cubs coming off a rough 3-24 season in 2021, Glenn was looking to develop all of the young talent he could to build up the program.
Hinson saw limited varsity action as an eighth-grader, getting in just three of Nevada’s 30 games that season. But he made a strong first impression.
“I heard he was pretty good, so I watched him play and we brought him up for a few games,” said Glenn. “He pitched, he got a save at Carroll one night and he’s taken off since then.”
Through four full seasons and the first half of his fifth and final year with the Cubs, Hinson has etched his name all over the Nevada record books.
Entering Nevada’s doubleheader with Class 2A No. 2 Roland-Story on June 15 at Nevada, Hinson had amassed a 12-10 record with a 2.39 ERA, 178 strikeouts and 53 walks in 126 innings.
Hinson was phenomenal in 2025. He went 5-2 with a 0.63 ERA, 77 strikeouts and just 21 walks in 44 1/3 innings.
“He’s got command of all of his pitches,” said Nevada senior Cole Beving. He can throw a fastball right by you and then spin something in the dirt that looks exactly like his fastball.”
Hinson strained a muscle in his throwing arm, so he has not been at his best so far in 2026. Even with the injury, he is 2-1 with a 2.33 ERA, 29 strikeouts and nine walks in 15 innings.
He is taking a little time to heal up before heading back on the mound this season. He thinks he can return to pitching within the next week or two.
In the meantime, Hinson is focusing on his hitting and fielding.
During the spring Hinson was the keeper for the Nevada boys soccer team. As baseball and soccer overlapped in May, Hinson was a little sluggish with his hitting to start the baseball season.
But once soccer ended, he turned the dial way up.
Hinson went into the Roland-Story doubleheader hitting .419 with four doubles, one homer, 15 runs and 16 RBIs. He belted his second homer of the season in the second game against Roland-Story on July 15 when he sent one over the fence in center field during the bottom of the third inning.
“I struck out in my first at-bat on a nice curveball,” Hinson said. “I really wasn’t looking to strike out again. I calmed myself down and I was looking to rope something up the middle or to right field and he (Roland-Story pitcher Ryan Kepley) gave me a fastball that was knee-high and I just turned on it. I knew it was out the second I hit it.”
For his career, Hinson has a .375 average with 25 doubles, five triples and seven home runs. He has driven in 84 runs and scored 62.
When he is not pitching, Hinson plays in the infield. He was at second base against Roland-Story.
Through Nevada’s first 16 games of 2026, Hinson had only committed three errors in 49 chances.
As the season progresses, Hinson wants to help Nevada get back to where it left off in 2025. The Cubs fell to eventual state qualifier Carlisle in a close 2-0 battle during the 3A Substate 7 quarterfinal at Carlisle.
Nevada fell just short of posting a winning record last year, finishing 12-13.
The Cubs are 9-7 to start the 2026 season. Hinson and Beving are the two aces leading the pitching staff, and they want to bring Glenn his first winning season as a Cub and make a surprise run in the postseason.
“We definitely want to finish it strong,” Beving said. “Pick up as many wins as we can, get a good seed and make a pretty good run in the playoffs. Drake and I at the 1-2 punch with our starting pitching rotation is pretty good, our fielding is good and our lineup, once we figure that out and start putting the ball in play more consistently I think we can finish out strong.”
Hinson has already had a remarkable senior year at Nevada. He was quarterback for a Nevada football team that won its first state championship by claiming the 3A title in November, and in the winter, Hinson helped the Cub boys basketball team reach the substate finals for the first time under coach Tyler Struck.
His legacy as a Cub is already secure.
“I’ve coached for 28 years,” Glenn said. “He’s right up there as one of the best pitchers and one of the best players I’ve ever had.”
Hinson will play college baseball at DMACC next year. He heads off to college in August, but until that time he wants to make the most of his final weeks in a Nevada uniform.
“This year it’s kind of riding it out with the senior group and enjoying not just the game, but the bus rides before the game and after the game and realizing in college, you’re not going to have this type of summer,” Hinson said. “We were always kind of looked at (to) make deep runs (in football). In baseball, nobody really thinks Nevada will ever make deep runs. I think that’s kind of what we want to change. It’s a matter of bringing it all together these last few weeks of the season and playing our best baseball.”
Joe Randleman covers high school sports for the Ames Tribune. Contact him at jrandleman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JoeRandleman
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: How Drake Hinson became one of the top baseball players ever at Nevada
Reporting by Joe Randleman, Ames Tribune / Ames Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Joe Randleman, Ames Tribune | USA TODAY Network
