Joey Hawkins was named Missouri State’s third head baseball coach on June 4, 2024. Hawkins played shortstop for the Bears from 2012-15 and was a team captain his final two seasons, returned to his alma mater as hitting coach and recruiting coordinator in June 2021 and was promoted to associate head coach one year later.
The Bears posted a 30-25 record and claimed a share of the Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship in his first season at the helm, ranking seventh nationally with a .548 slugging percentage and 12th with 109 home runs to continue a trend of big offensive numbers since Hawkins took over as hitting coach. Nick Rodriguez earned Joe Carter MVC Player of the Year honors and was a First Team All-America selection by the ABCA. Max Knight picked up Third Team All-America recognition from the NCBWA as the league’s co-Newcomer of the Year, and Tyler Epstein earned MVC Defensive Player of the Year honors to headline a group of seven all-conference Bears.
In the four seasons since Hawkins took over as hitting coach in 2022, the Bears rank eighth nationally with 422 home runs, including four of the top eight single season totals in program history and three of the top eight in Missouri Valley Conference history at the time the Bears departed the league following the 2025 campaign. A total of 14 Bears have combined for 21 seasons of double-digit home runs under his tutelage. In addition to its long ball prowess, MoState has also posted three of the top five seasons in school history in terms of walks drawn under Hawkins’ watch.
Hawkins has mentored a total of 10 players to 15 all-conference selections, including seven all-league picks as a head coach. Five Bears have earned specialty awards under his tutelage, including MVC Player of the Year citations for Spencer Nivens (2023) and Nick Rodriguez (2025), one MVC Freshman of the Year (Zack Stewart, 2023), one MVC Newcomer of the Year (Max Knight, 2025) and one MVC Defensive Player of the Year (Tyler Epstein, 2025). Rodriguez, Knight, Stewart and Caden Bogenpohl have each earned All-America honors as well.
Eight of Hawkins’ pupils at Missouri State - four hitters from his time as an assistant and four more players as a head coach - have signed pro contracts through 2025, including a pair of top five round draft picks in Drake Baldwin and Nivens. Baldwin made his MLB debut in 2025.
A fan favorite during his time as a Missouri State player, Hawkins spent four seasons with the Bears from 2012-15 and was the MVC Defensive Player of the Year as a senior. He owns the top two single seasons in school history for sacrifice bunts and assists, holds MSU’s career sacrifice record with 62, and led the NCAA in that category during the Bears’ historic 2015 campaign that saw the team earn the No. 8 national seed and win the Springfield Regional on the way to a school-record 49 victories. He started the final 157 games of his MSU career at shortstop.
After college, Hawkins was drafted by St. Louis in the 40th round and spent two years playing professionally, advancing to the Double-A Springfield Cardinals in 2016. He was also drafted out of high school from Whitby, Ontario.
Hawkins began his collegiate coaching career in 2017 as the recruiting coordinator and hitting coach at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, Mo., and joined the Division I ranks at Saint Louis University later that year in the same capacity.
During the 2018 season at SLU, Hawkins was an instrumental part of the Billikens club that swept the Atlantic 10 regular season and tournament titles and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. He helped the offense lead in the A-10 in scoring, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, RBIs and doubles, while the defense posted a .974 fielding percentage.
Hawkins returned to professional baseball in the St. Louis Cardinals organization in 2019, beginning as a hitting coach in the Gulf Coast League, worked as a hitting coordinator at the Cardinals’ alternate site facility in 2020 with some of the organization’s top prospects, and served as hitting coach for the High-A Peoria Chiefs to start the 2021 season.
Hawkins is married to former MSU softball player and three-time all-MVC selection Ashley Brentz, and the couple has three children, daughters Kinsley and Quinn and son Cooper. He graduated from Missouri State with a sports management degree in December 2015.
| Hawkins' Year-by-Year Record |
| Year |
School |
Record |
Pct. |
Conf. Finish |
| 2025 |
Missouri State |
30-25 |
.545 |
First |
| MSU Total |
1 Season |
30-25 |
.4.5450 |
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