Forced to endure a three-and-a-half hour drive to Washington, Pa., this afternoon, the consensus amongst the Penn State baseball team is clear.

"I'd rather play games than practice, anything to play games," Penn State infielder Matt Cavagnaro said. "Playing midweek games gets us ready for the weekend. Instead of having five days off between our next game, we get to see some live pitching."

Penn State's (6-18, 2-2 Big Ten) journey to take on intrastate rival Pittsburgh (11-15) at 7 p.m. marks the club's first Wednesday game of the season.

Played at the neutral site of Falconi Field, home of the Washington Wild Things, Penn State has two goals. Penn State coach Robbie Wine hopes to ignite the bats following back-to-back 5-0 losses at Minnesota and give action to members of the bullpen that see less action than the regulars.

Seth Whitehill (0-0, 0.00 ERA), with two innings under his belt to date, makes his first career start. Pitt, having adopted a similar outlook on the mid-week contest, starts Chad Baker (1-0, 22.85) tomorrow evening.

The Keystone Classic matchup represents a chance to shore up a bullpen that Wine said hurt the staff. Whitehill, Paul Hawkins and Steve Cline should receive more action than normal thus far to fill the gaps for later Big Ten games.

"Our bullpen is still up in the air," Wine said. "We have to batten down the hatches a little bit."

The two clubs seem headed in opposite directions. The Panthers got swept the last two weekends against Notre Dame and West Virginia, part of a losing streak that dates back to March 24. Meanwhile, the Lions split a series that witnessed them put back-to-back wins together for the first time this season.

More important than the win, Penn State eagerly wants to find its missing-in-action offense. After outscoring Minnesota 19-5 in the first two games, the offense stagnated as Minnesota threw a combination of arms that the Lions failed to adjust to in the final 16 innings of the series. They were outscored 10-0.

"We were real patient in the first two games with pitching and getting in hitters' counts," Cavagnaro said. "The third game, they started a lefty that kept us real off balance and then they brought in a righty right after. The fourth game we just couldn't get the clutch hit when we needed it."

A momentary return to spring training mentality, the game is also a tune-up prior to the home opener against Iowa Friday afternoon. Wine said it's these mid-week games that allow all roster members to get work in game situations, from those deep in the pen to those at the end of the bench.

"Hopefully we can get guys like that to the mound and keep them fresh and hopefully it gets us some hitters back on track," Wine said.