None of the members of the Penn State softball team are math majors -- but it doesn't take a mathematician to realize that the numbers from yesterday's doubleheader against Michigan State don't quite add up.

The Nittany Lions played the equivalent of nearly three games on Sunday, out-hit the Spartans by nearly a 2-to-1 margin (23-12), and only trailed for grand total of one of the 20 innings played. Yet the only number that mattered at the end of the day was one -- the number of victories Penn State received for its efforts.

The Lions (23-14, 3-3 Big Ten) battled the Spartans (13-21-1, 4-4) for more than three hours in the front-end of the doubleheader, when a double from Michigan State's Caitlin Mahoney finally broke the deadlock in the bottom of the 13th to give a 2-1 victory to the home squad.

For the third time in two weeks, the Lions stormed back after a disappointing finish and pummeled the Spartans with 13 hits en route to a 3-1 win. Penn State coach Robin Petrini was disappointed her team couldn't get its first conference sweep of the season, but she was pretty content with a weekend split.

"At all costs we had to at least split this weekend," she said. "It would have been nice to win two, but you have to at least split -- because you just do. That's just the way the conference is. You cannot drop two, you have to at least split."

Penn State struck early in the first contest when a Spartan error allowed freshman Ashley Esparza to score the game's first run, giving the Lions a 1-0 lead. The Spartans came through in the top of the third inning, when right fielder Nicole Mircado reached home on a sacrifice fly.

Much like a 2004 Penn State football game, the offense was difficult to find for both sides for the rest of the outing. Missy Beseres and Ashley Esparza of the Lions battled back-and-forth with the Spartans' combination of Rachel Turney and Lesley Noel, as each side left the other baffled with nine scoreless innings in a row.

The game finally broke in the bottom of the 13th, when Mahoney's double gave Michigan State its only lead of the day and a hard-earned 2-1 victory.

"We had lots of chances in that first game, we just weren't able to get a hit across and they were," Petrini said. "It was a great game. They just came up with one more hit when they needed it."

Penn State came out swinging in the second half of the doubleheader, following a script it has followed often this year -- making up for a disappointing early loss with a strong presence at the plate.

Also much like Penn State's previous contests, freshman Jen Acunto led the way for the Lions. The shortstop had yet another home run, giving her a team-leading six blasts on the year while helping Penn State grab a 3-1 win.

"One of the things that we've talked about is just hitting base hits," Petrini said. "Every time she hits a home run I ask her if it felt like air, because if she's just concentrating on getting some base hits, when she hits them out they feel like air. She's being rewarded by staying with her fundamentals."

Petrini wants to see her team get back some of the tenacity it had when the season started -- but for this weekend at least, she could live with the results.

"We need to get back to being a loose and aggressive ballclub like we were at the beginning of the year and let the outcomes take care of themselves," she said. "But at all costs, we had to at least split this weekend."