Julian Merryweather, a sophomore pitcher for Skyline College’s baseball team, has played baseball for 10 years and is still going strong.

While Merryweather is a pitcher for the Trojans, he is also currently majoring in business and minoring in psychology.

Matt Cain, a pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, is one of his favorite baseball players. Some of Merrryweather’s hobbies are playing video games and hanging out with other players on the team. He also plays in some off-season leagues, but he is not committed to any one team.

Merryweather’s work ethic and ability to grow and develop as a player have been invaluable to his progress, which his team- mates, including Trojan’s catcher Colton Hicks, have noticed.

“He’s been one of our more consistent pitchers,” said Hicks, a catcher for the Trojans. “He gets more comfortable with me as the year goes on, and I get more comfortable with him.”

Julian really enjoys playing for the head coach, Dino Nomicos, and he says he’s one of the best coaches he’s had. Some of the great traits Merryweather admires in Nomicos are his ability to recruit students at the high school level and his ability to foster high morale and camaraderie within the team. Nomicos stated that in regards to Merry- weather, the feeling is mutual.

“I think Julian is an outstanding player,” Nomicos said. “He’s a quality player, individual and good student.”

Julian prefers college baseball to high school because there’s more intensity in the games rather than “just fooling around. You go into the games with a different kind of mindset.”

As a kid, he tried different sports, but baseball made an emotional impact on him. However, he wasn’t always a pitcher; he also played shortstop and third base in high school.

“I like his competitiveness,” said shortstop Justin Chapman. “He doesn’t ever back down from someone.”