From LSU to Penn State: Paxton Kling returns home
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (WTAJ) — The last time we saw Paxton Kling at Medlar Field, he was celebrating a State Championship with Central in 2022 after leading the Dragons to an undefeated season his senior year. Now Kling is back, this time wearing Blue and White as one of the Big Ten's top hitters.
Central caps off perfect season with dominant win for state title
'I've been very fortunate and blessed to have this situation in this experience,' said Kling. I mean, I'm very grateful to be home here at Penn State.'
Kling was a Top-100 prospect out of high school, but he skipped the MLB Draft for a chance to play at LSU.
Future awaits Central star & LSU commit Paxton Kling
'He's obviously a five-tool player,' said A.J. Hoenstine, Kling's high school baseball coach. 'But what stood out with Paxton was he was the first guy here at practice every day and the last guy to leave and just loves the game and is a very coachable kid.'
It was at LSU where Kling won a National Championship as a freshman and batted .289 with four home runs and nine RBI, all while learning from future big leaguers Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews; the first two picks in the 2023 MLB Draft.
'The main things I learned from Paul and Dylan was just the mental game is really just getting past situations that don't go your way and just continue to move on, like the sunrise the next day,' Kling said. 'And it's just baseball. So just go play.'
Skenes was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates with the first overall pick and was quickly moved up to Double-A with the Altoona Curve where WTAJ got the chance to ask him about the Roaring Spring native.
'He's a stud. And people are saying that he could be the next Dylan Crews. That's a high mark to achieve, obviously, because of everything that Dylan's accomplished,' said Skenes. 'But I would say that if there's one person that I've met who can do it, it's Paxton. I got pretty close to him this year, and it was obviously awesome to accomplish what we did with him, and I really can't wait to see what he's going to accomplish.'
2024 didn't play out as well for Kling, and at year's end he entered the transfer portal and chose to come home to Penn State.
Central's Paxton Kling transfers to Penn State
'Him coming back home had a massive impact on recruiting and on the way people look at the program,' said Penn State head coach Mike Gambino. 'I mean, he's one of the more famous high school players to come out of the state of Pennsylvania in a long time.'
Kling has torched Big Ten pitching by batting .327 with 12 home runs and 42 RBI, showing off the raw talent that made him one of the best prep prospects in the country.
'It's just being myself. Just try not to do too much,' said Kling. 'Just playing the game, getting the pitches that that I can handle and, and take care of them.'
'The tools are loud. Everybody sees them. You can impact the game offensively, defensively on the basepaths,' said Gambino. 'He's a guy that you have to game plan around when you're facing us every time.'
After going from one of college baseball's greatest programs to Penn State, Kling says his goal is to bring the winning culture that he experienced at LSU to Happy Valley.
'Penn State and recent history hasn't been great in baseball. So surely just trying to bring that the winning culture and create a standard of winning,' Kling said.
The winning culture is growing as Penn State sits at 26-17 on the year, which is their best season in more than a decade.Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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