Nothing boosts a team's confidence like winning does.

The Penn State softball team (27-21, 8-8 Big Ten) looks to keep its confidence high this weekend, when it travels to Indiana to take on the lowly Hoosiers (13-28-1, 0-14). The Nittany Lions take on the Hoosiers today at 5 p.m. and tomorrow at 1 p.m. at the IU Softball Field.

Penn State returns home next weekend to host conference leader No. 20 Ohio State (46-9, 13-3) next Saturday at 1 p.m. at Nittany Lion Field. Next Sunday, the Lions will close out their Big Ten schedule on Senior Day against the Buckeyes at 1 p.m.

The Lions will be riding a season high five game-winning streak into Indiana.

"We have a lot of confidence right now," center fielder Gina Bianchini said. "Winning games has had a good affect on the team, and hopefully it will carry over with us."

Penn State sits in seventh place in the conference, but only the top six teams qualify for the Big Ten tournament. The Lions need to win their final four games and need help from teams ahead of them to guarantee a spot in the conference championship.

A year ago, the Lions qualified for the tournament with a 9-11 record and were the fifth seed when they won the tie-breaker over Wisconsin and Purdue, but Penn State softball coach Robin Petrini expects that at least a .500 mark will be needed this year.

"If we can finish in the Big Ten with a 10-10 record, we then have a chance to make the tourney," Petrini said.

Penn State's foe this weekend has dropped seven of its last nine games and is winless in the conference. Indiana is last in the conference in hitting, and as a team the Hoosiers are batting collectively .206, though Indiana does have eight home runs in conference play.

The Hoosiers have the highest ERA in conference action with a 4.44 ERA, have struck out a conference-low 28 batters and opponents are batting .342 against them.

"It's very important that we win the games against them," Bianchini said. "We can't afford to lose any games, especially these games."

Penn State will go from the worst team in the conference to the best team in the conference when Ohio State invades State College. The Buckeyes have hit 50 home runs as a team.

The Buckeyes are led by outfielder Anna Smith. She is batting a whopping .521 with 60 runs scored, seven triples and 35 stolen bases. Fellow outfielder Stacy Roth is hitting .377 and has with 13 home runs. The senior is leading the team with 54 RBI.

When the Buckeyes arrive in State College, the regular-season conference title will most likely be hanging in the balance and Bianchini knows it that much harder to beat them.

"We need a win by upsetting them," Bianchini said. "They will be playing for home field advantage, so we need to go all out to win possibly one or two."