After a long, hard haul, the Lady Lion softball team overcame all obstacles and pulled out their first doubleheader win over Kent State yesterday.

The Lady Lions have had a tough season until this point and this sweep might be the impetus it needs to finish the year in a more positive manner.

"We talked about how we needed to do a better job with the pitch selection against this team -- they came in with a really high batting average," Lady Lion Coach Sue Rankin said. "We needed to try and keep the ball away and mix them up and we did a real good job doing that. We made the plays we had to."

With a 3-2 win in the first game, Penn State broke its 10-game streak of scoring two runs or less. And unlike the past games where the Lady Lions have had their runs dispersed throughout the game, yesterday the team was able to muster two in the second and one in the third.

With a win under their belts, the sluggers were fired up and blew the Lady Flashes away in the second game. In a reversal of fortunes on the Lady Lion Field, Penn State brought home four runners, shutting out Kent State, 4-0. This is only the third time this season the Lady Lions have shut out a team.

Things couldn't go wrong for the Lady Lions. In the last six games at home, the team has amassed a total of 16 errors, but the defense was strong yesterday and allowed only two in the entire doubleheader.

Kent State seemed to be the team bumbling the ball, with an outfield error in the first game that allowed Penn State outfielder Julie Shalom to advance to third on what should have been an easy flyout to Lady Flash Cyndi Urban.

"When we hit the ball as well as we did today, we put the other team on the defensive and its nice having it on the other foot." Lady Lion pitcher Leigh Bakun said. "We didn't let the mental errors that may have been happening before happen today."

Pitchers Bakun and Dawn Hoover both took wins, giving them a total of six and two, respectively. Both players struck out four in each game, keeping Kent State off guard.

The Penn State offense finally pulled together and got some clutch hits.

In the first game, third baseman Ellie Traino launched her second triple of the season, and in the second game designated hitter Dana Burns ripped her second double and triple on the year. Outfielder Denise Oswald added a double and Hoover a double and a triple for the Lady Lions.