With the season winding down, the Penn State club baseball team has one real opponent left: itself.

"I just hope everyone keeps their head on straight," pitcher Chris Rayburg said.

The Nittany Lions (16-3) are confident but, nonetheless, aren't assuming anything's finished yet.

Before Penn State clinches another trip to the National Club Baseball Association World Series, it first must win at least two of three games in its series against visiting Rutgers University on May 8 and 9. Winning the series would clinch the New Penn Conference regular season title, which will guarantee a spot in the World Series.

There also is the conference championship tournament May 15 and 16 at Penn State. The NCBA World Series finishes the season May 26-31.

The players don't like to look too far down the road; they'd rather just focus on enjoying tomorrow's Alumni Game and Sunday's doubleheader against Penn State Berks. Still, future business can't be ignored.

"I don't like to look ahead, but we should be able to beat them," shortstop John Ruhf said. "Our pitching is good and that will be big if we have to play three or four games in two days. ... It's always about the pitching. I think we have enough of it. Every team we've seen so far, they don't have anywhere near as good pitching as we do."

It isn't just that the front of the team's rotation -- Carmon Comunale, Rayburg and Bill Lippert generally have been Penn State's three regular starters -- is good, but Penn State also has a strong bullpen to back them up.