The softball team continues to win in spite of itself.

The Lady Lions (9-16) put plenty of runners on base in their sweep of Divison II Lock Haven (7-7). The problem was most of them were stranded.

"I think we need to come up with some clutch hitting," assistant coach Beth Perine said. "We're getting enough runs to win ballgames, but we're not being consistent about it."

Penn State, acting as the visiting team since the game was originally scheduled to be played at Lock Haven, left 12 runners on base in game one.

In the first inning, the Lady Lions stranded two runners when Dawn Hoover flew out to left and Kim Corbin struck out to end the inning.

The team punched a run across in the second, but Joyce Tinner grounded into a fielder's choice with the bases to loaded to end the scoring threat.

The Lady Lions were shut out in the third when Amy Tortorella was thrown out on an apparent single to right field and Julie Shalom bounced back to the mound to strand two more runners.

Two runners were left on base in the fifth inning and one each in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings.

"Right now there's no scheduled practice before the Atlantic-10 weekend," Perine said, referring to the team's upcoming games against Temple and St. Joe's. "But about half the team is coming in for extra hitting tomorrow. You always want to go up wanting a hit, whether there are people on or not. I just want them to feel confident and relaxed at the plate."

In game two, the Lady Lions cut their LOBs in half, stranding just six runners. However, they left the bases loaded in the fifth inning without scoring a run. On the season, the team has stranded 134 runners, while scoring only 65 runs, in 176 innings.

It was the defense's turn to struggle in game two, as the Lady Lions committed six errors, resulting in two unearned runs.

Amy Tortorella, Marie Hawkins and Dawn Hoover (two errors each) made three consecutive errors in the bottom of the second to give the Lady Eagles their first run.

Hawkins dropped a pop-up by Ann Sabatini, who eventually walked. Hoover tried to get Sabatini out on a fielder's choice, but threw the ball away, putting runners on first and second. Pam Greim hit the ball back to the mound and Hoover tried to get Sabatini out at third, but Tortorella missed the bag. Sabatini then scored on a sacrifice fly by Jen Horner.

Unearned runs have also plagued the Lady Lions this season. In their first 25 games, they have yielded 29 unearned runs.

"If I knew what the problem was I could fix it," Coach Sue Rankin said. "But I'm not sure what it is. We have new people at third and short and it's just going to take some time for adjustment."