Amateur Career
Lincoln played baseball for Brazoswood High School of Clute, Texas, though he was also a quarterback for the football team, and did not concentrate exclusively on baseball until after his sophomore year. After his senior season, the Texas Rangers selected him in the 28th round of the 2003 draft, but he elected to attend college rather than turning pro at that time.
He matriculated at the University of Houston, where he played college baseball for the Houston Cougars baseball team. He built on a strong year in the Cape Cod League in 2005 to emerge as a top-level talent during his junior season in 2006. He began the 2006 season by being named the |Most Outstanding Player of the Houston College Classic. For the season, he posted a 12-2 won-lost record and a 1.69 earned run average (ERA), with 152 strikeouts in 127 2⁄3 innings pitched, and also excelled with the bat, achieving a .295 batting average with 14 home runs and a team-leading 53 RBI. At the end of the season, he was named to the Conference USA All-Tournament Team, recognized as the Conference USA Player of the Year, and won several major national awards, including the Dick Howser Trophy and the Brooks Wallace Award. He was also one of four finalists for the Roger Clemens Award, but lost out to Andrew Miller of the University of North Carolina.
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