The Nittany Lions (27-11, 3-7 Big Ten) continued to turn the new in-state rivalry into an outright run-away last night against Pittsburgh with final scores of 3-2 and 5-2 in an afternoon doubleheader, making it five out of five against the Panthers since their first match up in 2000.

"It feels good. It feels great. I think the kids are feeling really good and lets just keep this ball rolling," Penn State coach Robin Petrini said.

Sophomores Jen Acunto and Ashley Esparza led the charge offensively with four hits a piece and a combined six RBI to push the Nittany Lions win streak to six.

The most important play in either game though, came in the top of the sixth, with Penn State up 2-1 in a game that had already seen two Penn State errors as well as two defensive miscues.

With a runner on first and no one out, Pittsburgh's Jessica Dignon slapped a single down the right-field line. With the lead runner charging for third, Danielle Kinley set her arm for leather-seeking and fired a web-gem missile shot from deep-right field to third baseman Destinie Chavez.

"I just expected [a throw] right when it went past first base," Kinley said. "[The throw] felt good, it felt like I was gonna hit her right on line."

Petrini said, at first, she was a little bit nervous when Kinley decided to unleash her arm with the runner heading into a dangerous position for an overthrow. After the fact, however, Petrini was all smiles when talking about the toss.

"She gunned that kid out, there wasn't even a question," Petrini said. "She just reared back and threw a strike."

Petrini credited assistant coach Jen McIntyre for having the freshman prepared for the precarious game situation.

"We practice them throwing to the bases all the time, and if they don't get it right they have to do the rep over and over and over again," Petrini said. "They've gotten to the point where they don't do the reps that many times because they know to throw to the appropriate bases and get the kid out."

Penn State finished the inning tied rather than down and went on to win with a walk off double by Acunto in the bottom of the seventh.

In game two, Penn State found itself down 1-0 early in the first without surrendering a hit. A hit batter, an error and a fielder's choice put the Panthers on top.

The Lions responded with two in the third and three in the fifth to put the game out of reach. Petrini said the come back win was important to her teams' character.

"I always forget those come from behind wins, but they are so important, knowing they can be behind and still scratch it out and win the game," Petrini said.

Throughout the double-header, the Lions made five marked miscues along with three mental errors that never showed up in the score book. Acunto said the shoddy defense was more of a fluke, and wouldn't be a big factor in future games.

"They were very aggressive base runners," Acunto said. "We've seen very conservative base runners the entire year. They capitalized on every dropped ball, missed ball, every bunt. They weren't looking for one base, they were looking for two. We were kind of frazzled a little bit."

"It happens, we've had impeccable defense, flawless defense pretty much the entire year, there's nothing you can do. We have a strong defense, but we're not perfect," Acunto said.

Penn State will travel to Akron for a 3 p.m. doubleheader tomorrow before returning home this weekend.

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