When the Penn State baseball team arrived in Richmond, Va., Saturday, freshman pitcher Josh Palm thought he'd have another day to prepare for his second career start.

Thanks to a rainstorm that was expected to hit the Richmond area yesterday, he got thrown in the fire a bit early as the Nittany Lions agreed to play a double header against the Richmond Spiders Saturday. However, the poised young right-hander was still able to hold the potent Spiders lineup to two runs in 6.1 innings of work to earn a 7-2 victory, the first of his career.

"When coach came on the bus and told us, I just tried to change gears real quick," Palm said. "Then I just approached it like any other game."

Palm's pitching and solid team defense allowed the Lions (5-8) to split the doubleheader with the Spiders (15-2) after losing the first game 4-3.

The Lions had been having serious defensive problems. They had not played an errorless game coming into the series, and had only twice committed as few as one in a game.

After committing just one error in the first game of the doubleheader, the Lions played their first error-free game in the second contest.

"I didn't feel like I had my best stuff today," Palm said. "But you have to be able to pitch through games like that and depend on your defense to make plays. Fortunately they did that."

The Lions took an early lead in the second game with an RBI double by Adam Warchal in the second inning and an RBI groundout by second baseman Mike DeRenzo in the fifth. They tacked on two more runs in the sixth when catcher Matt Harter doubled home first baseman Clint Eury, then scored on a double steal to make the score 4-0.

The Spiders got back in the game in the bottom of that inning with a two-run home run by first baseman Vito Chiaravalloti, his fourth of the season. However, center fielder Wes Reohr gave the Lions the five-run cushion they would not relinquish with a three-run homer in the ninth. It was Reohr's first home run in his collegiate career.

"It felt really good because it was my first collegiate home run," Reohr said. "It's great just to finally be hitting the ball hard."

DeRenzo tied up the first game at 1-1 with an RBI single in the top of the third, but the Spiders took the advantage back in the bottom half of the inning when shortstop Matt Craig ripped a two-run homer. Designated hitter Chris Dolan provided some more insurance with a solo shot in the sixth.

The Lions came within a run of the Spiders with an RBI double by Eury and a run-scoring single by Harter in the seventh. They still had runners on second and third with no outs in the inning, but Spiders ace Tim Stauffer struck out the next two batters and got the third to fly out to end the inning.

Sophomore pitcher Matt McLoughlin entered the game in the ninth to get the save for the Spiders.

Stauffer struck out 11 batters to move to 6-0 on the season. Lions senior Mike Watson took the loss to move to 2-2 despite striking out seven.

Despite winning only one of the two games, the Lions felt a lot better about their play Saturday than they had after their 2-5 stint in Florida last week.

"We played really good baseball on Saturday," DeRenzo said. "If we continue to play like this when the Big Ten season starts, we'll be able to compete with anyone who steps on the field."

The Lions will travel to Annapolis, Md., for two games against Navy next weekend. They will then play at Bucknell March 26 before beginning the Big Ten season with a four-game set at home against Purdue beginning March 29.