Strong pitching and timely hitting powered the Penn State baseball team to a doubleheader sweep of La Salle yesterday, 7-5 and 8-0.

After losing four of its first seven games this season, Penn State sent its ace, Gary Miller, to the mound in the opener hoping to reach .500. Instead, Miller's early-inning wildness led to a 3-0 La Salle lead.

"He's our best pitcher," Coach Shorty Stoner said. "He threw hard, but maybe because of the cold weather, he couldn't get the breaking ball over."

With one out in the top of the second following a walk and double, Miller struck out La Salle's Tom Forte. However the two-strike fastball bounced past catcher Travis Crayosky, allowing a run to score. Crayosky pounced on the wild pitch but fired high to first base and was unable to nab Forte. La Salle's Dan McNally, seeing the errant throw, scored all the way from second. An RBI sing by Explorers' catcher Bill Artz led to the last of the inning's three unearned runs.

Two more La Salle runs put Penn State in a 5-0 hole. Penn State reliever Mike McRoberts replaced Miller in the fifth and shut out the Explorers the rest of the way.

In the bottom of the fifth the Penn State offense awoke. A leadoff walk to Scott Biesecker followed by an infield single from first baseman Craig McRoberts gave rise to chants of "Juice". O.J. McDuffie, attempting to extend his seven-game hitting streak, promptly laced a single into center field, scoring Biesecker and sending McRoberts to third. With one out, Penn State attempted a double steal. McDuffie was caught stealing second, but the throw home was not in time to catch McRoberts. The scoring continued, however, as Russ Mushinsky's single to left set the stage for Jeff Kavelak's mammoth two-run homer.

Kavelak came through again in the seventh with Penn State still trailing by one. After a leadoff single by shortstop Mike Killough, Kavelak jumped on LaSalle reliever Mike O'Connor's first pitch, sending the fastball sailing over the centerfield's head to the fence for a run-scoring double, tying the scoring at 5.

"I wasn't sure whether they would intentionally walk me or not," Kavelak said. "I knew that he (O'Connor) would try and get ahead of me with the fastball. If it wasn't the pitch I wanted I would take it, I knew I had at least two other pitches coming.

With the score now tied, Crayosky stepped to the plate. Crayosky, batting .385 this season, sent another O'Connor mistake over the fence in left to end the game and give the Lions the victory.

The second game was less of a struggle, as Penn State scored five runs in the third inning en route to an 8-0 blowout. Most of this offense was unnecessary as Penn State hurler, Greg Young pitched a four-hit complete game masterpiece. Young started off slowly, but seemed to get stronger as the game wore on, tallying five of his seven strikeouts in the sixth and seventh innings.

"I felt tired between innings," Young said. "We are conditioned to go seven innings though."

Penn State's third-inning barrage was sparked by six consecutive hits, including McDuffie's leadoff single which extended his hitting streak to nine consecutive games.

"I have not really thought about the streak," McDuffie said. "How many games is it at now?"