SLIPPERY ROCK — J.T. Thomas sees playing for the Slippery Rock Sliders as a chance to improve in a competitive summer college league.

Thomas is one of five SRU players, Sean Holliday, Billy Messer, Derek Diruscia and John Thomas being the others, who that will be playing in this summer's Prospect League.

Except for Holliday, who will be the lone Rock player as a member of the Butler BlueSox, that's still a nice group of young teammates playing together during the summer.

"It'll be good, not just for team chemistry, but for us to get closer," said Thomas. "Derek Diruscia called me and said we'd be pitching the whole summer together."

This Spring, Thomas was a junior academically but a sophomore athletically) while Diruscia was a sophomore, Messer a junior and John Thomas a redshirt freshman.

"It'll be nice because we'll all be together for at least one more season," Thomas added.

Thomas found out about the league through SRU coach Jeff Messer.

"In the previous summer, I was playing in a recreational league near my hometown of Ambridge.

"In the fall, Coach asked if I wanted to do that or play in a more competitive league, so here I am," he added.

And Thomas, who was 0-2 with a 3.21 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 28 innings for SRU during the regular season, sees a lot of possibilities in this league.

"This gives a good college player a chance to get to the next level," he noted.

For Holliday, a Moon High graduate who played in a Cal Ripken League in Herndon, Va., last summer, the chance to play closer to home was a plus, as well as the opportunity for competitive play.

"Obviously, it's a first-year team and I talked to (BlueSox owner) Leo Trich and he said the setup was like a big-time league," said Holliday, who will stay in his apartment off campus and drive to Butler.

"Kids all around are staying with host families. The league will have Division I, II, III, NAIA ...," Holliday added.

And squaring off against his SRU teammates will make for some interesting — as well as enjoyable — banter for next year.

"We talked about it this year, joking about playing against each other," said Holliday, a senior academically, but a junior athletically. "We talked about what a good time it'll be to face each other."

Holliday was 1-0 with a 10.26 ERA in six games this season with The Rock, including two as a starter. He had 17 strikeouts in 16 2/3 innings.

Thomas, a Laurel High School graduate, was 3-0 with a 3.00 ERA, 24 strikeouts and 10 walks over 21 innings.

Diruscia, a catcher-first baseman who played at Blackhawk High, started all 49 games he played for SRU during the regular season and hit .383 with four home runs, 46 RBI and 40 runs scored.

Messer, a Slippery Rock High grad, batted .348 with four home runs, 37 RBI and 37 runs for SRU.