LATHAM, N.Y. – Thanks to his outstanding combination of athletic and academic success, as well as his service to her campus and surrounding communities, Penn State Harrisburg's Hunter Merritt has been named the inaugural United East Baseball Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Introduced for the 2022-23 season, the senior scholar-athlete award is one of the highest individual honors the conference bestows. The award is granted to one senior from each sport who represents the epitome of the student-athlete model thanks to their high level of performance on the court, in the classroom, and in their community.  Merritt joins women's basketball's Kendis Butler and women's soccer's Sydney Hemler as Penn State Harrisburg student-athletes to earn the award this season.

Merritt turned in an excellent senior campaign that saw him twice named the United East Pitcher of the Week (2/27, 3/27). The Etters, Pa. native posted a 4.23 ERA this season in 55.1 innings thrown. The right hander appeared in 13 games with 11 starts and earned six victories, including a 12-11 win over No. 2 Salisbury in NCAA Regional action, to go along with 39 strikeouts. For his career, Merritt ranks third all-time in program history in wins (13), as well as sixth all-time in ERA (4.42) and starts (26).

"Hunter has been the model student-athlete for four years," said Penn State Harrisburg head coach Ryan Bown. "He has represented our program both on and off the field exactly the way we want to be portrayed. We are going to miss his leadership and model character next year."

The hurler has also been stellar in the classroom, earning a College Sports Communicator (CSC) Academic All-District accolade and four United East Scholar-Athlete honors throughout his career. Merritt was also named Penn State Harrisburg's Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year this spring. He recently graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering with an impressive 3.80 cumulative GPA.

Merritt has volunteered his time at Penn State Harrisburg's Food Pantry in conjunction with the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank over the years, helping collect and distribute food items for the organization. He also contributed in the local community and most recently volunteered and worked on landscaping projects for Ruhl's United Methodist Church in nearby Manheim, Pa.