According to the 2005 baseball yearbook, Scott Gummo's most prized possessions are his truck and his glove.

Lately, it's been the junior's bat that's been most cherished.

Coming into the Penn State home opener against St. Bonaventure last Tuesday, Gummo was batting a not-so-glamorous .154 with just eight hits, two home runs and seven RBI in 16 games.

Since then, though, Gummo has been leading the way for the Nittany Lions in their recent run surge.

"Nothing's changed really," he said. "I've been hitting real well the first couple of weeks, just right at people. Lately I've been finding holes in the defense. The ball's just looking like a beach ball up there."

Gummo finished 3-for-5 Sunday in a 13-0 win against Purdue, capping a four-game series in which he compiled seven hits, two home runs, four runs and four RBI.

But those numbers are just a tad below what Gummo did in the previous two games last week against the Bonnies and Bucknell. In those two games, when Penn State scored a combined 34 games on 38 hits, Gummo batted 6-for-9 and drove in seven.

Gummo's .154 average has turned into .284, his eight hits have nearly tripled to 21 and his 19 RBI are good for second on the team, behind Matt Lewis' 24.

"He's just really been swinging the bat great lately," Penn State coach Robbie Wine said. "He's seeing the ball well and finding holes in the defense."

Last season, Gummo hit .299 and was the closest Lion to join Mike Milliron as the only player above .300. So far this season, nine Lions are batting higher than the .300 mark, and if Gummo keeps seeing beach balls, he will soon join them.

During the offseason, Gummo underwent knee surgery, which kept him out of preseason workouts. He wasn't cleared to practice until a week before the season started.

Playing both third and first base, Gummo worked his way back into playing shape at the beginning of the season while his teammates had all winter to prepare.

He said the knee injury didn't so much affect him physically at the plate, but it screwed up his timing. It's that mental clock that picks up and plants the foot during the swing and gets all the force generated to swing.

"It's feeling better, but it's still sore after games," Gummo said of his knee. "It hasn't been affecting me too much at the plate. I've just been seeing the ball more."

With his timing finally ticking right and the pitch being picked up better, Gummo is turning those hard line-drive outs into gappers, or even home runs, like the two he hit this past weekend.

Speaking of timing, Gummo's starting to heat up just in time for the Big Ten schedule. And Purdue can attest to just how unfortunate it might be for opponents if he stays this way.