BENNINGTON, Vt. — The New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) announced on Monday its 2016 baseball all-Conference squads and major award winners with Southern Vermont College freshman catcher Dan Mason (Bloomingdale, N.J.) being named to the Third Team while junior right-handed pitcher Joshua Hay (South Glens Falls, N.Y.) was chosen to the NECC All-Sportsmanship Team.

Mason tallied 42 hits in his freshman season to rank fourth on the team, six of those being doubles while he also registered two triples and a home run. His 25 runs batted in tied for the ninth most in the Conference and third most for the Mountaineers while his 27 runs scored ranked fifth for SVC and 16th in the league. Mason was ninth in the NECC in on-base percentage (.445) while being 16th in both batting average (.347) and slugging percentage (.455).

Mason was also solid behind the dish, making only four errors on 211 total chances to turn in a .981 fielding percentage. He tied for the most runners gunned down in the league, throwing out 19 opponents on 42 steals attempted on his watch. That is the most runners caught stealing in team history, topping the previous mark of 15. The SVC team only threw out 13 runners collectively in all of 2015.

"Dan was a major piece to our season," commented fourth-year Southern Vermont head coach Dave Gage. "This honor is only a small piece of his impact he had for our program this year."

Hay, one of the Mountaineers' two captains, displayed tremendous leadership to his team while respecting the game and his opposition to be selected as SVC's representative on the NECC All-Sportsmanship Team. He went 52.1 innings on the hill through Sunday, recording a 4.30 earned run average while putting up a stellar 1.89 ERA in Conference action.

"Josh is an amazing leader and captain," Gage added. "His sportsmanship and abilities have driven our culture to exactly where we want it to be. I'm proud of him for leading the NECC in conference ERA and playing the game the right way."