GANSEVOORT, N.Y. – The North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) has announced its 2013 Baseball All-Conference Team selections, with first and second team honors being awarded to the top 24 players as selected by the conference coaches, regardless of position.

The NEAC has also announced its individual award winners.  Penn State Abington senior Bill Parave (Pennsauken, N.J.) was selected as the NEAC Player of the Year after a sensational season for the Nittany Lions.  The slugger batted a conference-best .425 on the season while driving in 30 runs out of the three-hole for Abington.  His 42 hits were the third-most in the NEAC and included smacking two homeruns and eight doubles to produce a slugging percentage of .535, ninth-best in the conference.  He was just as strong on the mound as well, going 3-2 with 32 strikeouts and a 2.86 ERA in eight starts.  That mark shrunk to 1.86 in conference play, where we went 2-0 with 15 strikeouts while giving up just six runs (four earned) in 19.1 innings of work.    

Parave, who earned a NEAC Student-Athlete of the Week award and an Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Player of the week honor this season in addition to a spot on the D3baseball.com Team of the Week, led Abington a share of the regular season championship and the second seed in this weekend's conference tournament. 

Gallaudet University sophomore Brandon Holsworth (Beal City, Mich.) was named the NEAC Pitcher of the Year after a tremendous season on the mound for the Bison.  A three-time NEAC Pitching Student-Athlete of the Week selection, Holsworth leads the NEAC in games started (10), complete games (6), shutouts (2) and innings pitched (70.1), while being second in both wins (5) and strikeouts (47) and seventh in ERA (3.20).  His 1.74 ERA during conference play was tops in the league, while his six complete games currently ranks 21^st in all of NCAA Division III play.  His efforts this season have also led to a pair of NCAA Division III National Pitcher of the Week Honorable Mention selections by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA). 

The NEAC Rookie of the Year award was given to Penn State Harrisburg freshman Bryan Balshy (Palmyra, Pa.) after a terrific season for the Nittany Lions.  The rookie shared the conference lead in runs batted in with 39 this season, while also recording the most sacrifice flies (4), the fourth-most homeruns (5) and the fifth-best slugging percentage (.568).  He batted .364 on the season with a .440 on-base percentage, ripping seven doubles while scoring 22 runs and swiping four bags in 37 games.  He also registered a .986 fielding percentage while manning first base all year, tallying a conference-most 271 putouts to go along with 14 assists while also turning the fifth-most double plays (15).

For the second straight season, the NEAC Coach of the Year award went to Gallaudet University's Curtis Pride.   The Bison skipper led Gallaudet to a share of the NEAC regular season trophy with an 11-3 mark in conference play while guiding them to a 20-19 mark overall, which included the program's first win over a nationally-ranked opponent earlier in the season.  The Bison will now host this year's NEAC Championship Tournament after clinching the top seed.

The All-Conference Team selections are as follows:

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The North Eastern Athletic Conference has thirteen NCAA Division III member institutions which include: Cazenovia College, College of St. Elizabeth, Gallaudet University, Keuka College, Lancaster Bible College, Pennsylvania State University - Abington, Pennsylvania State University - Berks, Pennsylvania State University -Harrisburg, SUNY Cobleskill, SUNY Institute of Technology, SUNY Morrisville State College, Wells College, and Wilson College.  Associate members are: Hilbert College (M Lacrosse), Medaille College (M&W Lacrosse) and Rutgers University - Camden (M Golf & M Tennis).