After dropping a pair of games to No. 24 Minnesota because of the lack of clutch hitting, the Penn State softball team bounced back to beat Wisconsin twice on the power of clutch hits.

The Nittany Lions (18-17, 4-4 Big Ten) dropped a 5-4 decision to Minnesota (26-11, 3-1) in a brief snowstorm this past Friday night at Nittany Lion Field. On Saturday the Lions dropped their second one-run game to the Golden Gophers, 3-2. Penn State rebounded against Wisconsin on yesterday, sweeping the doubleheader 5-1 and 4-1.

"Clutch hitting today was great," Penn State softball coach Robin Petrini said. "We got it from lots of different people and that was big. The bottom part of the order was huge today."

The Lions jumped out early on the Badgers 1-0, when Erica Greenberg doubled home Jackie Dabrowski in the second inning. In the third, Penn State's offense exploded scoring three runs. Three consecutive singles by Erin Norton, Megan Humphrey and Kelley Galigher loaded the bases before Dabrowski drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly, and Greenberg came up with a key hit when she lined a single to drive in two runs.

"It was a great hit," Petrini said. "It was a clutch hit and she's so strong when she gets a hold of a line drive, it's hard for the outfielders to catch up to it."

The 4-0 lead was more than enough for sophomore pitcher Marisa Hanson, who threw one-hit ball through the first six innings before giving up three hits and run in the seventh inning. She improved her record to 9-7.

In the second game, Penn State lead 2-0 when freshman pitcher Tina Skelly started the fifth inning by giving up back-to-back hits. Skelly was replaced by Hanson and got out of the jam, allowing only one run to score.

With the Lions up 2-1, Galigher led off the sixth with a double to left center and advanced to third when the cutoff man was overthrown. With two outs, Susan Shuplock singled to left field, scoring Galigher.

"I was just trying to get on base," Galigher said. "I knew we needed to score more runs so I just wanted to get on."

The Lions came up one hit short on Friday night against the Golden Gophers. In the top of the fourth, with a Minnesota runner on third, the game was called for snow. After a 15-minute delay, the game continued and Hanson got out of the inning with a run.

Penn State scored twice in the fourth before the Golden Gopher offense scored five times in the fifth — all on one hit. The big hit was Veronica Roberts' triple to the left centerfield gap with the bases loaded, and she scored on Humphrey's throwing error.

"A walk, an error and hit batsperson — that explains it all," Petrini said. "If your going to walk them you can't make errors, and once you make an error you got to make them put the ball in play. Then their kid came up with that big hit."

On Saturday, with the game locked at two in the bottom of the sixth, Minnesota scored with a hit to give them a 3-2.

The inning began with a Hanson strikeout but a dropped third strike by Greenberg allowed junior Jordanne Nygren, who hit a two-run homer in the first inning, to reach base. Nygren stole second, then scored when Hailee Nanchy hit a ball to Shuplock at second, which she was unable to handle allowing Nygren to score.

"The hit they scored the ball was jumping around," center fielder Gina Bianchini said. "It had a lot of nasty spin on it, and balls like that, if you don't handle them cleanly, you won't get the out."

After the Lions loaded the bases in the seventh, Penn State could manage only a fly ball to center field by Erin Norton that ended the game and Minnesota held on to win 3-2.

Penn State returns to action on Tuesday against Kent State at 3 p.m., at Nittany Lion Field.