April 17, 2018
By Mandy Bell, GoPSUSports.com student staff writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Last spring Penn State freshman Parker Hendershot was just a few months away from starting his collegiate baseball career at the University at Buffalo when he found out on social media that his future was about to change.
Hendershot scrolled through Twitter early one morning to find out baseball was one of the four programs Buffalo would cut at the conclusion of the 2017 season.
"I kind of panicked because it was late in the recruiting process," Hendershot said. "I didn't know who was going to give me another opportunity or where I was going to go."
Committed to Buffalo since the spring of his junior year in high school, Hendershot was forced to start from square one exactly one year later.
Not only was it late in the recruiting process, but most schools also require an academic decision from the institution by the beginning of May. With Hendershot receiving the news around March, that left him just two months to create a new plan.
Instead of taking all two months though, Hendershot got things turned around in just two weeks when he selected Penn State as his new home.
"Unfortunately, in the last 10 years, we've seen some [baseball] programs get cut and that has not good for our game," Penn State head coach Rob Cooper said. "It's worked out where it's been really good for Penn State baseball. He's an unbelievable young man. He comes from an unbelievable family. He works extremely hard."
Although Hendershot was looking for the best place to continue his baseball career, he also wanted to find a school that he loved outside of baseball.
Penn State's campus was the perfect fit.
"I wanted to go to a big school and Buffalo was a big school too," Hendershot said. "Obviously, this is a step above. I liked all of the facilities here and the coaches. Obviously every program here is a great program. I told myself once I committed here that if I don't get to the next level, that's on myself because obviously the coaches and the facilities are going to put us in a place to thrive. If we don't perform and improve the way we want to, then that's our own fault."
As ready as he was to start his journey to the next level, Hendershot was thrown yet another curveball. With an injury plaguing him through the entire fall season, the young freshman was not able to start the 2018 season as ready as his teammates were.
"Some of the things he's gone through in January, February and early March, a lot of our guys got to go through in September, October and November," Cooper said.
In the first series of the season at Elon, Hendershot was not selected to travel with the team because Cooper and the coaching staff felt as though he was not quite ready.
"He never pouted. He never complained," Cooper said. "He said, 'Yes, sir. I'm going to keep working.' In fact, the morning we left for our first trip, he and some other freshmen were there at the bus wishing our guys luck. It shows the kind of person he is. It shows you how he works."
While some freshmen may get frustrated under tough circumstances, Hendershot uses it as motivation. Although he's a natural hard worker, Hendershot has previous experience being a young member on a veteran team, which has helped him keep his confidence throughout the beginning of the 2018 season.
Hendershot is from Barton, New York, where high school sports teams sometimes allow middle school students to play up if the player is good enough to make the cut. In middle school, Hendershot made his high school team and graduated as a five-year letterwinner from Tioga Central High School.
Serving as team captain in his senior year, the Tigers MVP was ranked the ninth-best player out of New York and the second-best third baseman ahead of arriving in Happy Valley.
"It does [help] because there are some teams that have freshmen that struggle and then there are teams that freshmen thrive on," Hendershot said. "I think, in regards to this program, the freshmen have gotten a lot of opportunities and I think we've done our fair share of contributing."
Despite the early season challenges, Hendershot has started to heat up at the plate, hitting .313 (5-for-16) in his last four appearances. Last time out, the freshman had a career day, going 3-for-4 with two runs scored, two RBIs and a walk.
For Cooper though, he believes this is only the start for the young freshman. When it comes to Hendershot's future, the sky is the limit.
"One thing he does love to do, is he loves to play baseball," Cooper said. "He's not afraid of competition and he's extremely coachable. He wants to soak up knowledge. Love having him. We're lucky."