BOISE – Jordyn Hutchins is probably not the first player you think of when it comes to the Boise State softball team.
The junior outfielder doesn’t have the brand recognition of the Flores sisters (Eliyah and Alycia) or the recent accolades of Kelsey Hall. But she’s top-5 in nearly every offensive statistical category, including being tied for second in home runs with 11, for the newly crowned Mountain West champions.
Hutchins will now look to help the Broncos earn the league’s automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament at the inaugural Mountain West Conference Tournament. No. 1 Boise State (31-15 overall, 16-5, MW) plays the winner of San Jose State/Fresno State in the quarterfinals at 5 p.m. MST Thursday in San Diego.
“Our staff was joking about it a couple of weeks ago. We’re like, ‘Holy cow, Jordyn’s doing what?’ Because she’s just kind of like the silent assassin,” Boise State softball coach Justin Shults said. “She just goes out there and does her thing. I think with Kelsey and Eliyah, a little bit bigger personalities and you kind of maybe feel them a little bit more at times. But Jordyn’s been huge.”
(Photo by Tyler McFarland/Boise State Athletics)
She’s been that way since hitting her first home run at age 11. Her father Joe hopped the fence – in flip flops – to get the ball. He still has it to this day.
It’s a good thing too. Because it’s a little hard to track them when they’re ending up in a crowded street or in the infield of the opposing team’s baseball field.
At Woodland Christian High School, which had a total enrollment of a little more than 200 students at the time, Hutchins led the entire state in home runs with 18 in 25 games as just a sophomore in 2018.
That same year, she also put up the nation’s highest slugging percentage at 1.885, which was 100 points higher than the next closest person.
Hutchins is still the school’s record holder in batting average (.671), hits (141), home runs (35) and RBIs (133) despite not getting a senior season due to the coronavirus pandemic. The three-time Central Valley California League Most Valuable Player only struck out 11 times in 280 plate appearances and led the Cardinals to back-to-back Sac-Joaquin Section championships.
She appeared on multiple top-100 lists, including Softball America with future teammate Alycia Flores.
“That’s kind of where I was like, ‘OK, this could be more than just a high school thing,’” Hutchins said. “Coaches started coming out to our games and contacting (me). It was like, ‘Wow, OK, I really have a shot at this.’”
One of those coaches was Shults, who was an assistant for the University of Oregon at the time.
“We had two kids on her same team that were coming to Oregon,” Shults said. “So I had watched her play a ton and I felt like I knew her really well. She’s one of the kids I almost recruited.”
Hutchins ended up committing to Stanford after receiving other offers from the likes of former national champions Alabama and Washington. But she decommitted from Stanford her junior year of high school.
“It wasn’t a great fit for me academically,” Hutchins said. “I feel like when that happened and I was in search of a new home, a new school, I kind of questioned am I really capable of playing at such a high level?
“I really kind of had to find my identity again and really figure out what I really wanted for myself?”
That search led her to a place she had never been, much less heard of.
Previous Boise State coach Maggie Huffaker reached out to her. Hutchins also knew Jalen Ervin, who was on the team at the time. Ervin played for Merrill F. West High, which is about 86 miles north of Woodland.
So Hutchins decided to pay them a visit.
“I was wearing a Boise State softball shirt and my family and I were walking around downtown and this man came up to me and he’s like, ‘Oh Boise State softball. Go Broncos!,’” Hutchins said. “I was just like, ‘Man, that’s so cool. I’m not even on the team and this guy’s coming up and supporting me.’ I fell in love with that aspect of Boise.”
(Photo by Tyler McFarland/Boise State Athletics)
Hutchins had quite the debut season for the Broncos.
She belted a home run in her final at bat in the seventh inning during her first-ever game. The shot over the center field wall accounted for the only run in a 5-1 loss to Georgia Tech on Feb. 12, 2021. Hutchins finished the season hitting .276 with seven doubles, seven home runs and 30 RBIs for All-Mountain West first-team honors.
So Shults was thrilled to get a second chance at coaching Hutchins upon being hired later that summer. So much so that Shults personally drove to Knights Landing, which is more than 25 miles outside of Sacramento and has a population of less than 1,000 ) thinking he was lost along the way ) just to meet her.
“When I got the job here, it was a no-brainer that she was somebody that we could possibly build the team around,” Shults said.
He was right.
Hutchins hit .300, five doubles, eight home runs and drove in 31 RBIs in the Broncos’ record-setting season last year. They set school records in conference wins (19), home runs (74) and three-game sweeps in league play (6). Boise State also tied the program record in wins with a 40-10 campaign for a Mountain West runner-up finish. The Broncos were still left out of the NCAA Tournament, though.
“I think we knew in the back of our head, we deserved to be there,” Hutchins said. “We worked really hard. We did all the right things and just kind of ended up falling a little bit short. So it left a chip on our shoulder.”
Which is something Hutchins has always had. She stands at just 5-foot-2 inches.
“I just kind of was always told growing up, ‘Hey, if they’re gonna overlook your size, just prove it out on the field,’” Hutchins said. ‘“Make them realize that it’s not really as big of a factor as they may think.’”
(Photo by Tyler McFarland/Boise State Athletics)
That’s exactly what she’s done, as well.
Hutchins is a big reason why the Broncos are ranked top-5 in the nation in home runs per game at 1.72 and total home runs with 79, which is a new school record. Only two-time reigning national champion Oklahoma (1.82) and Virginia Tech (1.74) have better per-game averages than them. They sit in fifth behind Virginia Tech (92), Oklahoma (91), Miami of Ohio (88) and Georgia (80) for total home runs.
She, Eliyah Flores (12), Hall (11) and Mykenzie Hanna (10) have combined for 44 home runs alone.
But it’s just not the long ball. Hutchins is third on the team in doubles (6), RBIs (40) and slugging percentage (.661). She is fourth in OPS (1.089), batting average (.322), hits (39), total bases (80) and fifth in runs with 35. Shults even gave her credit for when Hall hit 10 home runs during a 13-game stretch and was named both the Louisville Slugger and Extra Inning National Players of the Week last month.
“She honestly for a while had one of the most important roles, and that was kind of protecting Kelsey Hall when Kelsey was having her crazy streak of home runs and RBIs and all that,” Shults said. “If you don’t have someone like Jordyn behind her, people can pitch around her and kind of avoid her.”
However, there’s no getting around Hutchins either.
From registering a pair of hits including a home run against perennial power Michigan to going a perfect 3-for-3 with three RBIs against San Jose State, Hutchins was instrumental in Boise State securing just the second Mountain West title in program history following a 3-0 shutout of Fresno State last week.
The Broncos are hoping Hutchins can help deliver them a Mountain West Tournament championship. They need to win it in order to guarantee themselves a bid to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019 and for the third time overall.
“I think this team is capable of just about anything,” Hutchins said. “We’ve got the talent. We’ve got the drive. We’ve got the work ethic.”
And they’ve got Hutchins, who should be a household name soon enough.
“I think when her time’s done here, you’re gonna see her name in the record books, top-5 at least in a lot of categories offensively,” Shults said. “It’s a testament to who she is. She’s not necessarily worried about all the limelight. She wants to be a contributor and really leave her name on a legacy.”
