The 19th best hitter in the 2019 season, Nebraska’s Aaron Palensky, is also, like #20 Kobe Lopez, a returner to the Valley for a second season. And, also like Lopez, Palensky was quite good both seasons.

This is what he did in Winchester the last two years, plus playoffs:

VBL G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS Avg OBP SLG
2018 39 139 23 39 8 0 2 19 17 24 8 6 0.281 0.386 0.381
Play 4 15 3 3 1 0 0 1 2 3 1 0 0.200 0.333 0.267
2019 33 123 23 37 9 1 5 32 16 22 2 2 0.301 0.383 0.512
Play 2 9 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0.111 0.200 0.222

So while he was an All-Star in 2018 and was not in 2019, he actually hit better in his second year. He finished fourth in the league in RBIs and tied for tenth in both home runs and doubles, and on July 16th against Staunton, he went 3-4, with a home run, two RBIs, and hit-by-pitch, and went 2-5 nine days later against Strasburg, with a double, triple, and three RBIs. The league named him second-team All-Valley at outfield at the end of the season.

His college stats:

NCAA G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS Avg OBP SLG
2018 58 187 72 78 23 2 18 77 37 25 24 8 0.417 0.498 0.850
2019 48 192 36 65 11 2 5 28 24 35 6 0 0.339 0.434 0.495

In 2018, Palensky played at Southeast Community College, where he was given All-Nebraska honorary captain status in the outfield after slugging a ridiculous .850 in 187 at-bats. He made the huge leap to the Big Ten for his sophomore year in 2019, and was named 2nd Team All-League along with making the Nebraska Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll both in the fall of 2018 and the spring of 2019.

 

Palensky