NEW ORLEANS – University of South Alabama baseball pitcher Kevin Hill was named the Sun Belt Conference Male Student-Athlete of the Year it was announced Wednesday by the league office, highlighting a trio of Jaguars who were recognized.
Alyssa Mayer from the Jag women's soccer team was selected as a postgraduate scholarship recipient, while Hill's teammate Cole Billingsley was chosen as the school's representative on the Sun Belt Leadership Team.
This season Hill became the first individual in Sun Belt Conference history to be named the league's Pitcher of the Year in consecutive seasons, as his efforts helped lead the Jaguars to a top-25 national ranking throughout most of the year and a share of the league's regular-season championship. Entering the NCAA Tallahassee Regional, the redshirt senior right-hander has posted an 8-1 record, 2.53 earned-run average and 125 strikeouts in 117.1 innings pitched; he leads the SBC in strikeouts, is tied for second in wins, tied for third in opposing batting average (.211) and stands sixth in ERA. Hill was selected the Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week in February after fanning 12 while allowing just three hits in a complete-game victory at Georgia — earning SBC Pitcher-of-the-Week honors twice on the season as well — while making both the Golden Spikes Award and National Pitcher of the Year Award Watch Lists.
A year ago, he received All-America recognition from three different organizations following a campaign that saw him go 10-0 with a 1.73 ERA and 107 strikeouts. In addition to leading the conference in all three categories, the Oklahoma City, Okla., resident helped the Jaguars to the Sun Belt regular-season title.
Hill — who received his bachelor's degree from South Alabama in May 2015 and was a member of the Sun Belt Academic Honor Roll during the 2013-14 academic year — is the first Jaguar to be chosen the conference's Student-Athlete of the Year since David Kimani was honored following the 1999-00 season.
After graduating from South with a degree in exercise science in May with a 3.80 cumulative grade-point average, Mayer will receive $3,000 from the Sun Belt Conference toward future education as she prepares to enter a physician assistant master's program in the fall. The native of Birmingham, Ala., was on the conference's Academic Honor Roll following her freshman season and has been a member of the SBC Commissioner's List each of the last two years, and in 2015 became a member of the Alpha Chi honor society. An active member of South Alabama's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, she has contributed to the community in her time as a Jaguar both volunteering with Habitat For Humanity and as an Upward Sports basketball coach at the Cottage Hill Baptist Church.
Mayer was a member of the Jag soccer program the last four seasons, helping USA to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances, the Sun Belt Conference Tournament championship each of the last three years and back-to-back regular-season league titles. As a senior, she posted career highs with 19 starts and 22 appearances as the Jaguars ended the campaign 18-3-2 overall and with a top-25 national ranking for the first time in school history following the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament victory, a 4-0 win over LSU in the opening round.
Billingsley was chosen to represent South Alabama on the league's Leadership Team, which recognizes one individual from each institution — a letterwinner exhibiting leadership, sportsmanship, community service, citizenship and academic excellence — who exemplifies the highest qualities of being a true student-athlete.
He was named first-team all-Sun Belt for the second straight year this spring, as entering the regional he paces the Jags with a .301 batting average and 31 stolen bases; Billingsley leads the conference in the latter category. The redshirt junior, who hails from Cropwell, Ala., has also recorded 34 runs, 15 extra-base hits and 37 RBI as USA enters the postseason with a 40-20 mark overall after going 21-9 in league play. In 2015, Billingsley paced the Jaguars with a .345 batting average, 80 base hits and 30 stolen bases — topping the SBC and ranking among the top 20 nationally in the latter category — to be selected second-team all-South Central Region while also winning the ABCA/Rawlings Division I Gold Glove Award.
A member of the Sun Belt Conference Academic Honor Roll his first three seasons with the program, he received South's Auralia Crowell Freshman Scholar-Athlete Award his first year at the collegiate level and was chosen a Cape Cod League All-Star last summer. Billingsley has served on the school's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and in the community he has taken part in both the Mobile and Loxley Bike Build while also contributing to a Christmas giveaway that helped send holiday gifts overseas to children in need.
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
—USA—
