Hall of Fame
Merlet was the NAIA District 19 Player of the Year in 1992 and named First Team District 19 in 1993, as well as All-PAC First Team. His career records include top 10s in games played (144, 9th), at bats (498, 8th), hits (182, 10th), runs (146, 9th), RBIs (119, t-10th), total bases (287, 7th), and walks (80, 5th). He is second in career triples with 15 and assists with 386.
After graduation Merlet continued his baseball career with the Vienna Wonders of the European Professional Baseball League. He played in 18 games and hit .270 with a pair of homeruns. While in Vienna, he helped promote baseball by participating in clinics and umpiring little league games for local kids.
He returned to the states for a job as a sales manager at Sprung Structures from 1997-2003, then became business director at Universal Structures from 2004-05, and since '07 has worked in the Auditor General Department of the State of Pennsylvania as a Corporation Tax Officer.
Merlet stays connected to baseball as a featured coach on PlayBallAcademy.com -- an online service that provides video and audio teaching tools for coaches and young players. He continued to play baseball competitively through 2008 in the 18-and-over Blue Mountain League. He played for the Catasaqua Black Sox with two other Alvernia teammates, Mark Washburn and Shaun O’Boyle winning five league championships in seven years.
