Penn State baseball picks up three out of the transfer portal

Penn State baseball is coming off a 33-23 overall and 15-15 Big Ten record following head coach Mike Gambino's 29-24 overall record in his first year in Happy Valley.

Now, he's looking to go even further with the Nittany Lions just three weeks after the conclusion of the season.

This past week, Gambino added three transfer students to the 2025-26 roster: Spencer Barnett, Jayden Davis, and Kyle Emmons.

Infielder Spencer Barnett

Barnett has two years of eligibility left. The class of 2024 infielder was the No. 40 recruit out of Pennsylvania and ultimately decided to go to West Virginia. With the Mountaineers, he played all-around, but mainly on second and third base.

As a freshman, he had 29 starts over 46 games and hit two home runs, four doubles, 21 RBI, and 20 total runs. In his sophomore season, he started 28 of 45 games and tallied four home runs and 26 RBI. One of his home runs was a walk-off grand slam. However, he was more of a background character when it came to playoff time

Now, Barnett is returning home.

Infielder Jayden Davis

The second transfer to join the Nittany Lions is coming from Vanderbilt. Davis is entering his final year of eligibility after one year at Samford and two years with the Commodores. He was Freshman of the Year in the Southern Conference before transferring to Vanderbilt.

He hit two home runs, 12 doubles, and 36 RBI over 46 games. Davis was the third-highest batting average on the team, hitting .315. However, his junior year could not live up to his sophomore season as he required surgery in late April. Davis had only 24 games under his belt in 2025 before entering the transfer portal

Right-handed pitcher Kyle Emmons

Emmons is the third and most recent transfer added to the 2025-26 roster. He two years of eligibility remaining after two seasons at Towson University.

In 2024, the pitcher had 16 strikeouts and 16 walks over 14.2 innings. Then as a sophomore, he played in 19 games and upped his strikeouts to 27. Emmons played a total of 32 games in his career at Towson, allowing 33 hits and tallying 43 strikeouts. With a 5.18 run average and 3.67 ERA, he'll be a nice addition to the upperclassmen right-handed pitchers with three redshirt seniors, two seniors, one redshirt junior, and three juniors.

Emmons will join a crew of right-handed pitchers new to Happy Valley. On National Signing Day, the Nittany Lions welcomed Peter Thompson, Leo Boucher, Robert Brown III, Ethan Bauerschmidt, Dylan Firmstone, and Isaiah Shayter.