The Penn State softball team's bats have been very quiet in the Big Ten.

So quiet that the Nittany Lions' (22-15, 4-4 Big Ten) batting average sounds like a bad bowling score -- .138.

This weekend if that number improves the Lions will definitely have earned it. Today at 6 p.m. and tomorrow at noon, Michigan State (27-11, 6-3) comes into town. Then, on Sunday at noon No. 13 Michigan (29-8, 7-1), which is also first place in the Big Ten, will play a doubleheader against the Lions.

These two teams feature three of the top pitchers in the Big Ten. Michigan senior Marissa Young, teammate sophomore Nicole Motycka and Michigan State junior Jessica Beech all have double-digit victory totals. Young is the current Big Ten pitcher and player of the week and sports a 14-1 record with a 1.15 earned run average. Her teammate, Motycka, has a sterling 1.09 ERA with a 12-5 record. However, the most dominant pitcher the Lions could see is the Spartans' Beech. Beech (20-4) has a 0.76 ERA and has gone the distance in all 19 games she has started. She has posted shutouts in 10 of those contests.

The Lions struggled last weekend against another elite pitcher in Iowa's Lisa Birocci. Birocci had a dominant screwball and that is something that the team has been working on in practice this week.

"This week in practice we have been working on adjustments at the plate," sophomore outfielder Leigh Murray said. "We have been making adjustments to the screwball. The bats will come around, they always do." Young, Motcyka and Beech have given up just 51 earned runs in 47 starts. It will be important for the Lions to try to get to the pitchers for some runs early. When a pitcher of that caliber starts to get rolling along, they can become almost untouchable.

Birocci showed that last weekend, giving up just one hit over seven innings of work. Penn State softball coach Robin Petrini isn't worried about the other teams' pitching and said it should be no different than the other good pitchers they have beaten this season. "I don't think it's going to be a matter of us playing against pitchers," Petrini said. "I'm not giving them any more credit than they deserve and I'm sure they aren't giving us any more credit than we deserve."

The Lions' top two pitchers, junior Marisa Hanson and sophomore Tina Skelly, will need to keep the Wolverines and Spartans offense in check to give the Lions an opportunity to win the game. The Lions can't afford to try and outslug two teams that have as much offensive firepower as Michigan and Michigan State.

Petrini said after the Iowa game that her pitching staff was being killed by homeruns. She was worried about the pitchers getting the ball up in the zone. Michigan has hit 32 homeruns this season, compared to the Lions who have just eight.

"In the Big Ten our pitchers have been pitching well," Murray said. "Really the only way runs have been scored off of us are on homeruns."

It's really important for our pitchers to keep the ball in the park because our defense has been playing well."