The Penn State softball team has split series in the Big Ten this year in a variety of ways.

A blowout loss followed by a close win or a close win followed by a blowout loss.

For the seventh and eighth times in its seventh and eighth Big Ten series, the Nittany Lions (27-20, 8-8 Big Ten) found two more ways to split two Big Ten series.

The Lions throttled Wisconsin 7-0 on Friday, but followed that up with a 4-2 loss to the Badgers (15-24, 4-12) in which three of the four runs were unearned.

Those splitting Lions were back at it again yesterday when it looked like their streak of seven straight split series would come to an end.

After losing game one of the doubleheader to Minnesota in nine innings, 1-0, the Lions registered a 6-2 comeback victory after trailing 2-0 early to the Golden Gophers (35-15-1, 11-6).

Penn State softball coach Robin Petrini was unavailable for comment.

The loss in the first game to Minnesota was a nine-inning duel between the Lions' Marisa Hanson and the Gophers' Piper Marten. Hanson (12-8) finally allowed the game's only run on a bases loaded single with two outs.

She gave up 14 hits in the game, but was able to scatter them throughout the game to keep the Lions in it.

The Lions' offense never got on track against Marten (19-9), who only gave up six hits.

After a tough loss in game one of the doubleheader, the Lions could have folded in game two.

Especially when Minnesota third baseman Jordanne Nygren hit a two-run homer off of Lions' starter Shana Riggleman in the second inning.

But, in the bottom of the third inning the Lions' offense came alive scoring four runs on five hits.

There was no big blow in the inning as the Lions pounded out five singles.

The Lions added two more runs in the fifth and Riggleman (9-3) held the Gophers scoreless the rest of the game.

The victory keeps the Lions alive for the sixth and last spot in the Big Ten tournament.

They are tied with Northwestern with a .500 winning percentage, Northwestern has played two more games making them 9-9 in the conference.

Riggleman's win against Minnesota was her second win of the weekend after she pitched a one-hit shut out on Friday against Wisconsin.

Senior first baseman Erin Norton also had a big weekend at the plate going 6-for-14 with 5 RBI over the weekend.