MELBOURNE, Fla. (May 13, 2021) – The Sunshine State Conference announced the baseball All-Conference and Player of the Year awards on Thursday. Ballots were turned in by the head coaches of each team in the SSC. Rollins was represented on the list by starting pitcher
Jaylyn Whitehead and infielder
Sam LaFontaine on the First Team, with Whitehead adding All-Defensive Team accolades as well, and by catcher
Cody Oerther and outfielder
Nick Santucci on the Second Team.
Official SSC Release
Whitehead, who transferred to Rollins from UCF in the fall, was the ace of the Tars' pitching staff. The southpaw led Rollins in starts, innings, wins, ERA, WHIP, strikeouts, and opponent's batting average. His 2.08 ERA was third in the SSC, while his .187 opponent average ranked as the second lowest. Whitehead turned in three quality starts (6 IP, 3 or fewer earned runs) and went at least five innings in all six of his appearances. Against Lynn on March 21, he allowed one hit, no runs, walked none and struck out seven across six innings. He followed that with a complete game shut out of Nova Southeastern on April 10, going seven innings with seven strikeouts. He was named the SSC Pitcher of the Week two times during the season.
LaFontaine was a portrait of consistency throughout the season. He was the only player to start all twenty games for Rollins, seeing time at both second and third base. Sam paced the Tars with a .362 batting average, going 21-58 at the plate which included three doubles and a pair of home runs. His batting average was by far the best on the team, and ranked eighth in the conference. He scored ten runs and drove in eleven more while slugging .517 and getting on base at a .464 clip.
Oerther saw action in 14 of the Tars 20 games played, with eleven starts at catcher. He finished second on the team with a .343 batting average after collecting twelve hits in 35 at-bats. He was also stellar behind the plate defensively, posting a 1.000 fielding percentage on the year.
Santucci was red hot to start the year, helping Rollins to a 7-4 start. He hit home runs in each of the first three games of the year, and totaled seven longballs over the 7-4 stretch. His final slash line read .299/.356/.672 with two doubles, one triple, and the seven home runs. Santucci scored 13 runs, drove in 13 runs, and swiped three bags. He also posted a perfect fielding percentage on the year, committing zero errors in right and center field.
Vaun Brown of Florida Southern claimed the SSC Player of the Year award after leading the conference in five categories, including home runs and hits. Jordan Leasure of Tampa is the Pitcher of the Year after striking out 42 batters in 26.1 innings. Nova Southeastern's Tyler Epstein was named the Freshman of the Year, and Tampa's Joe Urso picked up his 13
th Coach of the Year award.
Whitehead is the first Rollins pitcher to be named first-team All-SSC since Brad Case in 2017. LaFontaine is the first position player since Chris Corbett and Peter Nicoletto, who were also first-team in 2017.
