In its bright red uniforms, Indiana (21-6, 1-3 Big Ten) kicked off its Big Ten season with the Penn State Nittany Lions (15-9, 3-1), who struggled with lowly teams such as Bucknell and C.W. Post last week, in a four-game series at Beaver Field.

At 5 p.m. yesterday the Hoosiers boarded an airplane similar to the one they arrived in -- losers of three of their last four games.

"I am delighted, I am delighted," said Penn State coach Joe Hindelang. "I thought we played pretty solid baseball and we came back each time."

That comeback theme helped Penn State jump out to its best Big Ten and regular season start in the Hindelang era. In each of their wins, the Lions had to come from behind to take three games in a four-game weekend set with the Hoosiers (7-6, 4-3, 6-7, 9-3).

The first deficit the Lions had to overcome this past weekend was the four-run variety. Heading into the sixth inning Friday they found themselves on the wrong side of a 5-1 score. In that half inning, Penn State posted three runs courtesy of a Shawn Fagan home run and a couple of Indiana throwing errors allowing Lions Joe Puliafico and Chris Netwall to both score.

That kept Penn State within striking distance heading into the bottom of the ninth -- unquestionably the highlight of the weekend, if not the season.

Trailing 6-5 and with left fielder Scott Hamilton already grounding out to the shortstop, Lions second baseman Eric Spadt routinely drew a walk -- the catalyst to the madness that was about to unfold.

Michael Campo then drilled a double off of Indiana reliever Nick Otte that scored Spadt from first. Campo advanced to third on a stolen base, leaving freshman John Richmond at the plate with the winning run in excellent scoring position.

Richmond would ultimately get that run home -- just not the way most thought he would.

With two strikes against him, Richmond shocked everyone -- including himself -- by laying down a bunt on a designed suicide squeeze play by Hindelang. The play worked, and Penn State pulled off its first comeback act of the weekend.

"I think with our lineup we are strong one through nine," Richmond said. "We feel very confident with whoever is up there and if you are within four runs with this windy field and these metal bats then you're ok. That alone gives you a chance."

Starting pitching gave the Lions a chance to escape with wins yesterday and Saturday as well.

Dan McCall pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up just one hit and striking out seven as Penn state scored two runs in their last at-bats to squeak out a 4-3 win in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader, only to get another strong performance the following day.

Peter Yodis walked off the mound in the bottom of the ninth yesterday to a standing ovation from the Beaver Field faithful -- and for good reason.

Yodis had just finished pitching the game of his life.

He was the Lions' workhorse through eight innings. He struck out 12 batters -- a career high. He was in control of the game up until Fagan relieved him in the ninth.

And he did it all with a load of insurance runs to work with.

"It's nice to know that we have the kind of lineup that can get us back into the game," Yodis said. "In college baseball you can always come back."

Penn State is proof of that.