Central’s Paxton Kling transfers to Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa (WTAJ) — Former Central baseball star Paxton Kling is coming home and has transferred from LSU to Penn State. Kling spent the past two seasons with LSU and won a National Championship in 2023.

Kling had a strong freshman season at LSU where he had a slash line of .289/.390/.522 with four home runs and nine RBI in 90 at bats. Last season Kling struggled at the plate and only batted .222 with one home run, however he had a strong .409 on base percentage.

Kling played his freshman season with Pittsburgh Pirates phenom and 2023 first overall pick Paul Skenes, who spoke exclusively with WTAJ before his Double-A debut with the Altoona Curve and had high praise for Kling’s potential.

“He’s a stud. And people are saying, you know, along the way that he could be the next Dylan Crews,” said Skenes. “So, you know, that’s a high mark to achieve, obviously, because of everything that Dylan’s accomplished. But I would say that if there’s one person that I’ve met who can do it, it’s Paxton. He’s a special, special guy, a special player, but special human. 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.”

In high school with Central he led the team to an undefeated season his senior year at 27-0 which culminated in a state championship. That year he led the Dragons with a .566 average with five home runs.

Coming out of high school Kling was ranked as the 104th best prospect in the MLB Draft, but he elected to forgo the draft to go to LSU as one of the programs highest ranked prospects in that years recruiting class.

Kling joins a Penn State squad that finished as the runner up in the Big Ten Tournament. He comes to Happy Valley with two years of eligibility left.

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