BOWLING GREEN, Ky. –Arkansas State senior Jacob Lee and Red Wolves’ head coach Tommy Raffo have been voted Sun Belt Conference Baseball Pitcher of the Year and the Ron Maestri Coach of the Year, respectively, by the league’s ten head coaches which was announced at the pre-tournament Championship Family Night at Bowling Green Ballpark.

In addition, Louisiana-Monroe senior shortstop Jeremy Sy was named the SBC Player of the Year and Middle Tennessee pitcher Johnathan Frebis was named the SBC Freshman of the Year.

ASU’s Lee holds an ERA of 2.99 which ranks fourth overall in the SBC. During SBC only games, that ERA is lowered to 2.89 ranking the senior third amongst SBC pitchers. He has eight wins on the season, six of which have come during conference games.

Lee has struck out 75 batters on the season and is the Red Wolves’ all-time strikeout leader with 269 total strikeouts.

ULM’s Sy becomes the first Warhwawk to be named the SBC’s Player of the Year after finishing league play with a 0.388 average and leading the league in eight categories, including batting average. The senior scored 34 runs during league play, had 47 hits, 11 doubles, 73 total bases and had a slugging percentage of 0.603 and an on-base percent of 0.493. Additionally he walked 24 times and swiped nine-out-of-ten bases.

Sy posted 16 multi-hit games this season.

ASU’s Raffo earns his first SBC Coach of the Year honor after leading the Red Wolves to a 32-21, 19-9 SBC record in 2012. The 32 wins are the most of any team in the SBC and the most for the Red Wolves since 2005. It is also the fourth-most wins in school history. The 19 conference wins achieved by ASU this season is second most in team history. Raffo’s Red Wolves will look to win its first SBC tournament title since 1994 as they enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed, the highest seed for the program since 1993.

Frebis, the league’s Freshman of the Year, is the first Blue Raider since Bryce Brentz in 2008 to earn the rookie honor and is the second consecutive freshman pitcher to take the award as WKU’s Justin Hageman won it in 2011.

His 3.24 ERA ranks sixth in the conference and his opponent batting average (0.222) ranks second overall. The Murfreesboro, Tenn. native has started 14 games for the Blue Raiders this season winning five of those starts.

UALR notched the most selections (five) to the teams with four first-team selections and one second-team selection. Regular-season champion and top-seeded Florida Atlantic placed four total (three first-team and one second-team). FIU and Middle Tennessee also had four selections each with FIU placing two on both the first- and second-teams and the Blue Raiders notching one first-team selection and three-second team selections.

2012 ALL-SBC FIRST TEAM
Chance Cleveland (UALR, Jr., SP)
Jacob Lee (Arkansas State, Sr., SP)
Ryan Garton (Florida Atlantic, Sr., SP)
R.J. Alvarez (Florida Atlantic, Jr., RP)
Blake Johnson (UALR, Jr., C)
Logan Pierce (Troy, Jr., 1B)
Mike Albaladejo (Florida Atlantic, Sr., 2B)
Jeremy Sy (Louisiana-Monroe, Sr., SS)
Mike Martinez (FIU, Sr., 3B)
Sean Bignall (UALR, Sr., OF)
Jabari Henry (FIU, Jr., OF)
Justin Guidry (Middle Tennessee, Sr., OF)
Whitt Dorsey (South Alabama, Jr., DH)
Myles Parma (UALR, Jr., UTIL)

2012 ALL-SBC SECOND TEAM
Randy Zeigler (Louisiana-Monroe, Jr., SP)
Johnathan Frebis (Middle Tennessee, Fr., SP)
Jarron Cito (South Alabama, Jr., SP)
John Koch (Arkansas State, Jr., RP)
Mike Spano (Florida Atlantic, C, Jr.)
Joey Rapp (Louisiana-Monroe, Sr., 1B)
Johnny Thomas (Middle Tennessee, Jr., 2B)
Dustin Jones (Arkansas State, So., SS)
Hank LaRue (Middle Tennessee, So., 3B)
Cameron Bentley (UALR, Sr., OF)
Pablo Bermudez (FIU, Sr., OF)
Jordan Patterson (South Alabama, So., OF)
Adam Kirsch (FIU, Jr., DH)
Scott Wilcox (WKU, So., UTIL)

2012 PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Jeremy Sy (Louisiana-Monroe, Sr., SS)

2012 PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Jacob Lee (Arkansas State, Sr., SP)

2012 FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Johnathan Frebis (Middle Tennessee, Fr., SP)

2012 RON MAESTRI COACH OF THE YEAR
Tommy Raffo, Arkansas State