PHILADELPHIA -- It was 16-4 to start, and it only got worse from there.

If the players on Penn State's club baseball team hadn't already validated their self-appointed "Beasts" nicknames, this weekend's series at the University of Pennsylvania did the job.

By the time the Nittany Lions walked off Penn's Murphy Field on Saturday, they had tagged Penn's pitching staff for 56 runs in three games, half of which came in the back end of Saturday's doubleheader in a 28-6 romp.

The weekend performance smashed to bits a 39-run, three-game output two weeks earlier at New York University.

All games were abbreviated by a 10-run mercy rule. Saturday's first game, a 12-1 contest, lasted six innings; the others went just five frames.

Despite spring weather that has juggled the team's schedule on several occasions, the Lions (11-3, 6-0 New Penn Conference) are still able to keep their bats in a rhythm.

Penn State club baseball coach Dan Day said his team enjoyed its offensive performances, but kept a game-face on.

"They started having fun -- not goofing-around fun, but fun in the game," Day said. "They kept their heads in it."

That game featured a Penn pitching staff, already worn down by two games' worth of abuse from the Lions' bats, being hit harder and harder.

Penn State scored 28 runs on 20 hits. Quakers pitchers helped Penn State's cause with nine walks and one hit batter, while the team made seven errors.

The Lions posted three and four runs, respectively, in the first two innings. Senior shortstop John Ruhf's three-run, 350-foot shot was the highlight early in the game.

Then came the real explosion.

Penn State sent 16 batters to the plate in a 12-run third inning that lasted more than 30 minutes.

In the first game on Saturday, Penn State took a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning on a Ruhf two-run single, then put the game away with an eight-run fifth.

Penn State received solid hitting with five players -- Jason Crandall, Chris Connors, Ruhf, Shirley and Nate Decker -- each getting three or more hits.