Jake Palomaki joined the Penn State baseball coaching staff in July 2024. Palomaki arrived in Happy Valley after serving as a hitting coach in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, recently working with the FCL Phillies.
In 2025, Penn State finished the season with a 33-23 mark (15-15 Big Ten), posting its second-most wins in a season. PSU reached the 30-win tally for the first time since 2011.
Penn State made another strong run in the Big Ten Tournament, reaching the semifinals in back-to-back years for the first time since 2000-01. PSU knocked off No. 5 seed Washington and No. 4 seed USC to advance to the semifinals.
In Big Ten play, the Nittany Lions won five Big Ten series in a season for the first time since 2012 and won three Big Ten road series for the first time since 2012. Their 15 Big Ten wins were its most since 2012 (not counting a Big Ten-only schedule in 2021).
The Nittany Lions had a .500 or better record in Big Ten games in back-to-back seasons for the sixth time in program history. The Nittany Lions’ eight Big Ten road wins this season were its most since 2007 (9).
PSU’s 27 wins in Big Ten play over the last two seasons are its most in a two-year span since 2011-12.
Penn State went 11-3 in series/weekend openers in 2025.
The Nittany Lions opened the 2025 campaign with wins over Missouri and UConn at the Puerto Rico Challenge. Their win over Missouri was PSU’s first over an SEC team since 1995 vs. Alabama. Non-conference competition also included a home win over No. 17 West Virginia and two wins over Xavier. PSU set an attendance record (6,106) in the win over WVU.
The Nittany Lions claimed 12 wins over RPI Top 100 teams, including six at home and six in road/neutral matchups. The wins included UConn, Indiana (2), Michigan, USC (2), West Virginia, Rutgers (2), Xavier (2) and Washington.
Junior outfielder Paxton Kling was a first-team All-Big Ten selection, PSU’s first since catcher Matt Wood in 2022, and was named to the Big Ten All-Defensive team. Redshirt sophomore Jack Porter was tabbed second-team All-Big Ten, while Cole Wagner earned the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.
Kling and Porter were ABCA All-Region East second-team honorees, joining junior pitcher Ryan DeSanto. PSU had three All-Region selections in a season for the third time in program history (1973, 2024). Among Big Ten schools, only Indiana and Oregon had more selections.
DeSanto, Kling and junior shortstop Ryan Weingartner all earned invites to the MLB Draft Combine.
Kling ranked fourth in the Big Ten in runs (63; 66th nationally) and sac flies (6; 47th), seventh in runs per game (1.13; 93rd) and eighth in batting average (.358).
At PSU, Kling ranks tied for second in a season in sacrifice flies (7), tied for third in runs (63), sixth in total bases (134), tied for seventh in homers (13), tied for eighth in hits (76) and tied for ninth in walks (37) and RBI (54). He became the first Nittany Lion with 13+ homers and 15+ steals in a season.
Weingartner paced the Big Ten in steals (30; 38th nationally) and steals per game (0.54; 53rd), while ranking seventh in walks (44; 79th) and 10th in walks per game (0.79). He was one of eight D1 players with 11+ homers and 30+ steals this season.
He set a PSU season record with 30 steals, while ranking fourth in a season at PSU with 44 walks and tied for 10th with 52 runs.
As a team, Penn State set season records for steals (108), doubles (111) and games scoring 10+ runs (23). The Nittany Lions slugged 79 homers. PSU paced the Big Ten in steals (108) and steals per game (1.93), while recording 12 more steals than any other Big Ten team.
PSU had five players with 10+ homers in a season for the first time in program history, including Kling (13), Bryce Molinaro (13), Jesse Jaconski (11), Weingartner (11) and Porter (10). Molinaro was the first Nittany Lion with 10+ homers in back-to-back seasons since Sean Deegan in 2011-12.
PSU also had four players with 10+ steals for the first time since 1994, including Weingartner (30), Kling (15), Joe Jaconski (11) and Wagner (11).
PSU was one of two Division I teams with seven or more players with 6+ homers and 6+ steals.
The Kennesaw, Georgia native played at Boston College, under Gambino, from 2015-18.
After being selected in the 18th round of the 2018 MLB Draft, Palomaki played in the Tampa Bay Rays organization from 2018-21. He played in AAA with the Salt Lake Bees in the Los Angeles Angels organization in 2022.
In his minor league career, Palomaki collected 266 hits, 99 RBI and 169 runs.
Palomaki served as player development coordinator for Pinnacle Performance.
While at Boston College, Palomaki played in 196 games, making 192 starts. He tallied 202 hits, 91 RBI and 153 runs. Palomaki is Boston College’s all-time leader in career walks (153) and season walks (46; 2015), while holding second in career runs (153) and career steals (60), fourth in season steals (19, 2016) and seventh in career on-base percentage (.426).
He was named NCAA Regional All-Tournament Team in 2016 and served as a team captain in 2018.