BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Jonathan Hernandez was named Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Baseball Coach of the Year, while Andrey Martinez was voted Co-Hitter of the Year, and Jean Carlos Zambrano was tabbed Relief Pitcher of the Year announced Tuesday evening prior to the start of the 2025 SWAC Baseball Tournament in Birmingham, Alabama. Additionally, for the Wildcats, Jesus Vanegas joined Martinez and Zambrano on the All-SWAC First Team. Representing the Wildcats on the All-SWAC Second Team was Darryl Lee, Jeter Polledo and Edwin Sanchez, respectively.
 
Hernandez, now in his sixth season at the helm in Daytona Beach – minus the 2021 campaign in which B-CU opted out due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has led the Cats to three consecutive 30-win seasons in each of the 2023, '24 and '25 seasons. The 33 wins leading into the SWAC Tournament is the first 30-win regular season since 2017. For Hernandez, this is his first-ever Coach of the Year award in either the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) or SWAC, as the Cats captured their first SWAC Baseball regular season title in the process.
 
Andrey Martinez, a junior from Barranquilla, Colombia, leads the SWAC in home runs (19) sitting on the precipice of tying the all-time single-season record for home runs (20), looking to match Ryan Durrence from the 2010 season. While seeing time at third base, first base and in the outfield, Martinez homered in three of his last four games, holding a .352 batting average and a SWAC second-best slugging percentage of .754 across the campaign. Other categories for which Martinez tops the league include RBIs (2nd), runs (5th), hits (5th) and sacrifice flies (8th).
 
Moving into a key relief pitching slot for the Maroon and Gold midway through the season, junior Jean Carlos Zambrano amassed a 6-2 record through the regular season with a team-high matching two saves. He holds a 3.32 ERA for the Cats in 40.2 innings on the bump. His six wins match him ninth in the SWAC in that department. Earlier in the year, he registered a season-high tying five strikeouts against Maryland Eastern Shore and Alcorn State, respectively.
 
Also, finding his way onto the All-SWAC First Team was Jesus Vanegas, a junior from Weston, Florida, after the Cypress Bay High alum batted .303 during the regular season with starts in all 54 games for the Maroon and Gold. He added a .612 slugging percentage with a team second-most 61 hits, 12 doubles and 16 home runs. He swiped five bases on the season and fielded at a .970 clip in accounting for 102 putouts and 121 assists from his second base position.
 
Darryl Lee, Jeter Polledo and Edwin Sanchez all joined the Cats prior to the fall, with all three earning their first All-SWAC nods following the regular season.
 
Lee has seen all of his time in the Wildcats outfield, primarily in right, starting 48-of-51 games and recording a .292 batting average to go along with 52 hits, a team-high five (5) triples and nine home runs. Arriving to Daytona Beach from Coastal Alabama CC, Lee has turned in 11 games in which he has driven in multiple runs, including a season-best five versus Florida Gulf Coast.
 
As for Polledo, the redshirt freshman from Wake Forest, has been a constant at the shortstop position with 44 starts while batting .309 with 47 hits, nine (9) doubles, four (4) triples and six home runs. A native of Hialeah, Florida, Polledo has logged 55 putouts and 92 assists with seven stolen bases. He pushed across a season-best six RBIs against UMES, as well as a pair of four-RBI games against Florida Gulf Coast, Alcorn State and South Florida.
 
The final Wildcats student-athlete named to the All-SWAC Second Team was pitcher Edwin Sanchez, a junior from Guayama, Puerto Rico, after he moved into the starting weekend rotation. He registered a record of 8-1 on the season – tops on the squad, with a team-low 3.06 ERA (third-lowest in the SWAC) and a team-high 79 strikeouts (third-most in the conference). Allowing just 27 runs on the season, he owns the third-fewest runs allowed in the SWAC with 64.1 innings on the mound. Opponents are batting just .256 against him. He tallied two games with double-digit strikeouts – Alcorn State (13) and Grambling State (10).
 
Bethune-Cookman opens the SWAC Tournament on Wednesday, May 21, at 10 a.m. ET (9 a.m. CT) as the No. 1 seed taking on the No. 8 seed Texas Southern at Rickwood Field in Birmingham.
 
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