Sometimes a team has to take a set of games and chalk them up to experience.

That is what the Penn State baseball team was left to do after this week's Stetson Tournament. The Nittany Lions (4-7) came out of Deland, Fla., with a 1-5 record after facing some stiff competition.

"We played some tough teams this week, Stetson was in the Top 25," second baseman Mike DeRenzo said.

The Lions started off the tournament by dropping an 8-3 game against Evansville.

The game would prove to foreshadow two things that would reoccur during the tournament. First was the hot-hitting of outfielder Chris Wright and second was the how the Lions would let games get away in the late innings all week.

Wright was dominant at the plate this week. He batted .417 and drove in five runs. He went 3-4 with one RBI in the loss to Evansville.

His performance was not enough, however. Penn State was only three runs behind the Purple Aces going into the bottom of the eighth but Evansville was able to pull away by tacking on two more.

"We gave some games away," senior pitcher Mike Watson said. Errors helped the Lions give away some of their games. After the Lions lost a blowout at the hands of Stetson on Tuesday they allowed two games to slip through their fingers. Wednesday they were tied with Central Michigan going into the bottom of the fourth before falling behind and losing 10-5.

Thursday they were beating Evansville 7-6 until the eighth inning when the Purple Aces scored three runs. Evansville would win the game 11-7.

In those two games Penn State committed three errors and the Lions had 10 total in the tournament. DeRenzo said that the team will focus more on groundballs during practice to try to sure up the defense.

Offensively the Lions were alive and well during the tournament. They are now batting .275 as a team right and Wright and DeRenzo are both batting above .380. The offense scored five runs in Penn State's lone tournament victory. The win came against Stetson in a game where freshmen Josh Palm and Tyler Wingerd combined to limit the Hatters to four runs.

"I think the freshmen are doing a great job," Watson said. It will take more outings like the Stetson game for the Lions to turn the early part of the season around.