Penn State’s impact transfers bring NCAA Tournament experience, championship pedigree

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Junior outfielder Paxton Kling has reached the mountain top of the sport. It’s the pinnacle of college baseball that every young baseball player dreams of reaching when they recycle the same fictitious situation in their head.

 

Except for Kling, that dream became a reality as a freshman in 2023 at LSU when he hoisted the National Championship trophy alongside his mentor, friend and locker mate Paul Skenes.

 

Kling was immediately embraced by the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year who engraved a winning mentality in his former teammate. It’s a mindset Kling - and many of his fellow transfers - are bringing to a talented Penn State roster.

 

Heralded as a top-100 prospect before removing himself from the 2022 MLB Draft, Kling is back in the Keystone State - a mere hour drive from his hometown of Roaring Spring - after posting a .402 on-base in 118 games at LSU.

 

Kling learned his winning ways from Skenes and outfield partner Dylan Crews who went first and second, respectively in the 2023 MLB Draft. Kling said he feels the parallels from the group he won a national championship with and recognized that playing for each other is an essential ingredient to reaching that ultimate goal.

 

“A lot of people don’t get to experience a national championship and it’s really cool to have that.” Kling said. “It's just keeping your nose down and grinding hard. It's important to have good team chemistry. That group was so close with each other and I get that same feel with this group here at Penn State. A lot of guys love each other and that's so important because you know the guy behind you has your back. You know the guy on the mound has your back. Everyone wants to go win and achieve [a national championship] while everyone still loves each other.”

 

Kling said that this Penn State team has a “complete one times nine” and is excited to play a “blue collar” style. “Everyone is a hard-nosed at-bat,” Kling said. “The difference between where I came from and here is that the long ball is a big thing in the SEC. Here, it's like ‘good luck getting us.’”

Junior right-handed pitcher Skip Shenosky was in the dugout opposite Kling during the 2023 College World Series Semifinals between LSU and Wake Forest and watched his Demon Deacons fall short.

 

Shenosky is a physical righty at 6-foot-5 with a mid-90s fastball and made eight starts as a primary midweek arm for Wake Forest in 2024 where he totaled 41 strikeouts in 38 innings.  Shenosky played with seven pitchers taken within the first five rounds of the 2023 and 2024 MLB Drafts including Chase Burns and Rhett Lowder and said he learned how to be a mentally stronger pitcher from them.

 

The Lancaster, Pennsylvania, product is coming off a collegiate career best 2.95 ERA with Keene in the NECBL and is primed to be an impact weekend starter. Shenosky said “Omaha is a different beast” and said there’s a uniqueness to “playing every day just to spend one more day together.”

 

“It takes one through 35, one through 40,” Shenosky said. “Every team has their one or two guys that will be on the posters and be in big draft talk but the teams that make it that far, they hit one through nine, their bullpen is 10 deep. It takes one through 35 to get it done.”

Graduate student first baseman Cole Wagner is another former SEC talent that brings NCAA Tournament experience to the Nittany Lions. Wagner played in a pair of games during the 2022 Chapel Hill Regional during his two-year tenure with Georgia and bashed a two-run home run against Hofstra in an elimination game.

 

Wagner is back in baseball after a one-year hiatus away from the sport. The Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, native announced his retirement from the game in July of 2023 and after finding a new purpose, he’s looking to enhance the winning culture instilled by head coach Mike Gambino.

 

Wagner said, “The one year I spent away from baseball taught me more about baseball than the 15, 16 years I spent playing it” and is playing with a fresh mindset that’s “free of fear, worry and doubt.” Wagner said his time off helped him realize the pressure involved with baseball doesn’t matter and said reaching the tournament consists of riding out the highs and lows of a long season.

 

“We have a really talented group of players and for us, we just want to be relentless,” Wagner said. “We want to be really gritty. We want to take that group of talented players and every team that plays us, they just sort of feel like they can't catch their breath because on the bases we're really tough, we grind out at bats. We play really good defense, on the mound, we just keep attacking. Just being super consistent and relentless and never letting up; we want to make that our identity.”

Redshirt sophomore outfielder Cohl Mercado may be a transfer but he’s a familiar face for Gambino who first knew the former in high school. Mercado played 45 games as a freshman for Gambino at Boston College, who fell to Alabama in the 2023 Tuscaloosa Regional Final.

 

Mercado is a speedy 5-foot-8 lefty bat who thrives stealing bases. The Ocean View, New Jersey, product played in just seven games in 2024 before an arm injury ended his season. Mercado said making the NCAA Tournament is “something I look forward to here” and mentioned it takes, “a group of collective guys focused on our team in the locker room.”

“It’s honestly like the team never missed a beat from the end of last season,” Mercado said. “Guys are coming in, there’s one common goal and that’s just to win.”

Junior left-hander Ryan DeSanto and junior infielder Ryan Weingartner have spent their entire college careers together and joined Penn State just days apart after their time at St. Joseph’s. The two Ryan’s were even roommates during their summer with the Harwich Mariners where they captured the 2024 Cape Cod Baseball League Championship.

 

The pair will be looking to play in their first NCAA Tournament this season but bring significant college experience as DeSanto led all Cape League pitchers in BB/9, was top-25 during the 2024 NCAA season in batting average against and Weingartner was one of eight D1 players with 15 homers and 18 stolen bases.

DeSanto said, “This year we got a great staff and I think we're going to shock and surprise a lot of people with how good it is.” Weingartner echoed that mantra with the offense and said the positive culture is driving this team forward. “We came here with the same thoughts and intentions of trying to host a regional and make it to Omaha,” Weingartner said.

 

“We talk about Omaha as the big one, being one of the last eight teams in the country, not just the Big Ten Tournament so when we say Omaha, we're talking about that and I think it's a possibility with this group,” Weingartner said.