Maybe the Penn State baseball team can just forget about the beginning of last week when it went 1-5 at the Texas A&M Aggie Continental Classic.

The 3-1 performance at the Texas-Pan American tournament at the end of the week is at least something to build on.

Facing three teams that entered the tourney with a combined record of 9-17, the Nittany Lions failed to jumpstart their stagnant offense and managed just 34 hits in six games at College Station.

After weather postponed Penn State's first three games of the tournament, the Lions opened strong with a 2-0 victory over UNLV in which Dan McCall and David Aardsma combined for a three-hit shutout.

But the Lions mustered just three hits in their next game against the host Aggies and lost 7-2.

They lost two games to Indiana State and one more each to Texas A&M and the Runnin' Rebels.

The Lions couldn't put together a complete game. Games when they got great pitching, their bats failed. If the pitching and hitting was both working, defense was off.

"The teams we played had some great games," senior pitcher Pete Yodis said. "A lot of the credit goes to them."

So after squeezing six games into three days and not getting anything going, the Lions were a frustrated, angry group. They were not going to remember the Alamo fondly.

So they stopped for a little barbecue.

"We went to David Aardsma's place in Houston," outfielder Rod Perry said. "It was a great time for us to relax a little. It split the trip in half and relieved some stress."

But it appeared that the time in the pool didn't help when the Lions opened the second leg of their trip in Edinburg with a 14-4 shellacking at the hands of Troy State, which lasted just seven innings due to a 10-run mercy rule.

That is, until the second inning of their second meeting with the Trojans, who up to that point were 5-0 against Big Ten teams, when eight Lions made the trip around the bases.

"We've been saying all along that we just need one game," Perry said. "Turned out we just needed one inning."

Aaron Tressler went six and two-thirds innings, allowing five hits and striking out six and Penn State stopped their six game skid with a 13-3 win.

"We got mercy-ruled the day before," Perry said. "That's an insult to your pride. That hurt us, and we wanted to go out and do it to them."

The Lions went on to win their two games against Texas-Pan American by a combined score of 21-6. Justin Nash pitched six innings and struck out five while allowing just one run to get the win in the final game of the trip.

Perry is hitting .300 on the season with a team-best 18 hits and seven stolen bases. Chris Wright is batting .271 with four home runs and 13 RBI, both team highs.