They call it the hot corner, but for the past few weeks offensive production from third base for Penn State had been ice cold.

Before the weekend series against Purdue, the Penn State baseball team had primarily been using junior Arin Gelletly and sophomore Colin Runt as the starting third basemen for a run of nine straight games.

But both struggled at the plate, combining for just two hits in 34 at-bats, so Penn State baseball coach Joe Hindelang tinkered with the lineup after a 7-3 loss in the series-opening game on Friday against the Boilermakers.

The next day, Hindelang threw Matt Cavagnaro at third and batted him leadoff. It took just three pitches to make the coach look brilliant.

Cavagnaro laced a double on a 1-1 pitch and eventually scored on a Matt Harter base hit. He would double again in the second inning and suddenly Hindelang's lineup decision for the second half of the doubleheader got a little easier.

"I thought Cavagnaro gave us a spark," Hindelang said. "He deserves to be in there. He reads the game, he plays the game -- he's not just this one-dimensional guy."

Cavagnaro would go on to start the final two games of the series at third and, according to Hindelang, it's going to stay that way for the foreseeable future.

"He's going to be there indefinitely," he said. "Cavagnaro was given the opportunity and he absolutely made the best of it."

With four hits in the three games he started, Cavagnaro gives the Lions not just production from third base, but also a legitimate switch-hitting threat at the top of the order.

"I'm just happy to be in the lineup," Cavagnaro said. "Anything to get in the lineup and do well."

Cavagnaro, a star shortstop at Bay Shore High School in Brightwaters, N.Y., still has to get used to playing at third, something that comes with time.

"It's an adjustment," he said. "I just have to get used to it and take more reps at third base and just make sure I'm ready."

At the beginning of the season, Hindelang filled the spot at third with Scott Gummo, who spent the first 11 games there with decent success at the plate. Gummo had 10 hits in those games, but Hindelang changed the lineup around following the team's spring break trip to Texas, from which the Lions returned with a five-game losing streak.

Hindelang elected to put Gummo at first base -- he now splits time between first and designated hitter -- and to try the defensively solid Gelletly and Runt at third.

Despite a throwing error at the end of the game yesterday, Cavagnaro proved to be a happy medium for Hindelang, who expects the rookie to continue to improve with time.

"He's going to be a nice player and he's going to get better there," Hindelang said. "He can create things for us as a switch hitter and knows the strike zone. He's got a big upside."