The Penn State baseball club split a weekend series for the third straight time this season at James Madison University. The Lions (6-6) won the first and third games 10-9 and 12-10, but dropped the second game 4-3 and the Sunday evening finale 6-4.

Junior outfielder Aaron Thompson led the offensive attack for Penn State by batting .429 across the series with a homerun, two doubles, five runs batted in, and two stolen bases.

The Lions received solid performances from their pitching staff, but the 19 errors committed in the field may have cost them a clean sweep over JMU. Junior pitcher Mike Ridge tied a Penn State club record for total strikeouts in a game by fanning 14 batters over seven innings, but he wound up with the loss in the second game to drop his record to 2-1.

"We were very pleased with our pitching, but our defense definitely wasn't there to support outstanding efforts on the mound," Penn State baseball club head coach Jason O'Neill said.

The club team is scheduled to host Bucknell and Carnegie Mellon at home this weekend.

— by Andy Cunningham