Up and down sluggers want off the see-saw

The Penn State baseball team is finding out the hard way how nauseating life on a see-saw can be.

After starting off the season with a rocky 9-10 mark, Penn State appeared to have put together the pieces by taking both games of a doubleheader last Tuesday against Georgetown at Beaver Field. But obviously, some glitches in the Penn State machine remained.

Proof came this weekend when the Nittany Lions (11-14, 0-4 Big Ten) dropped four games to Michigan (16-9, 6-2) in Ann Arbor, Mich.

In the sweep, the Wolverine lineup unloaded at the expense of Penn State's pitchers, scoring 49 runs on 55 hits in the four games. Penn State, on the other hand, managed to score no more than six runs in any one game.

So when the Lions return home today for a doubleheader against Bucknell beginning at 1 p.m. at Beaver Field, they will be trying to regain the momentum they gained before the Michigan trip.

Penn State took both games of its doubleheader with Bucknell last year, winning 9-4 and 6-4 at Bucknell. The Lions lead the all-time series with the Bison, 98-29-1.

"Last year we beat them both games. Their pitching wasn't too strong," Penn State outfielder Dan Beers said. "I have a feeling that we'll be hungry and come out and get the two wins."

Beers said he felt Penn State batters were capable of hitting the Wolverine pitchers but could never break things open. As for Saturday's 17-6 debacle, in which Penn State committed six errors, Beers said it was a case of some players just having confidence lapses.

"We just fell apart. We didn't play like we're capable," Beers said. "This is the Big Ten, and we've gotta get our acts together."

Lion pitcher Greg Arnold (1-2), who took the loss Sunday in Penn State's 14-4 defeat, said today's doubleheader is important for a staff searching for confidence. He said the staff is pretty depleted after the four-game set.

"On the whole as a weekend, anything that could have gone wrong did. We didn't catch any breaks," Arnold said. "Also, they were a pretty good team."

Arnold took Penn State into the seventh inning Sunday with a 4-3 lead. But he had yet to stay in a game that long before Sunday, and Michigan tagged Arnold and Penn State relievers Shawn Fagan and Jeff Kunkle for 11 runs in the seventh to put matters out of reach.

"We just couldn't hold a lead," Arnold said. "Last year we bended but didn't break, and this year we're breaking."

Notes:

• After opening the season on a tear, Penn State outfielder/catcher Jeremy Deitrick has gone cold. Deitrick was hitting .402 going into the four-game series with LaSalle on March 22. He went 4-for-15 against the Explorers and has gone 6-for-33 (.182) since March 22 to drop his average to .310.
  

• How's Nate Bump holding up under the pressure that comes with pitching under the watchful eyes of major league scouts every time he takes the mound? The junior from Monroeton is 4-3 and has allowed 25 earned runs and 49 hits in 42.2 innings. He also has given up four home runs.
  

  "They're all there with cameras and radar guns," Penn State coach Joe Hindelang said. "It's a lot for anyone to handle."