All of a sudden it is as if the defense couldn't field and the pitchers couldn't find the strike zone, a bad prescription for a team desperately in need of a remedy and one that seemed as though it was on the road to recovery.

The inability to record six outs in two separate games cost Penn State baseball (4-13) its first opportunity to win a series this season, possibly even a sweep. Instead, the squad dropped the final two games to Furman (11-7) because of mid-game collapses.

Despite dominating much of the final two games of the series, the Lions lost both contests by forfeiting early leads in two abysmal stretches.

"We made some mistakes," Penn State pitching coach Jason Bell said. "We had two big innings in two games that hurt us. They played bad defense, made bad pitches."

Penn State played inspired ball, seemingly motivated by an unimpressive 3-5 spring break trip to Clearwater, Fla. Its bats possessed a rare pop as round-trippers by redshirt senior Scott Gummo and redshirt junior Matt Lewis led Penn State to a 4-2 win in the first game of the three-game series.

The momentum seemed to carry over into game two of Saturday's double-header until Penn State's maligned fielding corps squandered a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth. Two errors resulted in three unearned runs and a game-changing seven-run inning.

Penn State allowed another "gimme run" after allowing a leadoff walk in the bottom of the eight. A pinch runner for Spence Gibbs stole second, and a throwing error by Penn State redshirt sophomore Joe Blackburn went into center field and allowed him to move to third. After recording an out, a wild pitch allowed Robbie Bowers to make his way around the bases without forcing Furman to put the ball in play. The Lions lost 8-4.

Yesterday afternoon's game was much of the same. After claiming a 2-0 lead, the defense again let down the pitching staff. Two more errors combined with a lead-off triple set up a four-run inning. With two more runs in the fifth, the Paladins amassed an insurmountable lead for a 7-5 win despite the Lions' attempted comeback.

Aside from the sixth inning on Saturday and the fifth inning yesterday, Penn State pitching dominated last year's Southern Athletic Conference's Tournament champion. It was just a matter of the pitchers not being able to finish what they started. As the game wore along, the starters had trouble hitting their spots, which the defensive lapses exacerbated.

Penn State pitcher Craig Clark had retired nine of ten batters heading into the fifth inning yesterday, but he derailed at the game's midpoint. Saturday, it was Markowitz who pitched lights out before coming undone.

"Markowitz got a little tired," Bell said. "Shoot, I should've gotten out of there a little sooner... He kept us in the game."

Over a month into the season, the Lions have yet to win consecutive games, a feat they accomplished on March 10 last year. Before going against a top-10 caliber team this weekend, the Lions are hoping Wednesday's home opener against Bucknell serves as the solution to this year's woes.