The playing conditions were miserable. As the rain transformed Beaver Field into a muddy mess, most of the starters made their way into safe haven of the dugout with the rout and storm in full force. But not senior catcher Aaron Greenfield.

He'd been confined to the bench much of the season either as a DH or as a backup catcher, so he wasn't anxious to relinquish his spot on the field despite the miserable conditions. He came into the fall the favorite for the starting gig after manning the position last year, but sophomore James Spinelli won the job. With "Spinner" out due to injury, Greenfield seized the moment this last week, capped by going 2-for-3 with two doubles, 2 runs scored and 2 RBI yesterday. This followed up a performance that earned him "Hometown Philly Baseball Player of the Week" honors according to tedsilary.com, as he went 6-for-13 with two home runs against Northwestern a weekend ago.

"Every hitter goes through periods where you're pretty confident and the ball looks pretty big regardless of what the pitcher is going to throw and you can start to tell what's coming next," Greenfield said. "All it takes is at-bats, and every hitter goes through it."

He credits increased patience at the plate, but yesterday he turned on the first pitch he saw and took it out down the left field line. He actually jumped on it a bit too soon, hooking it just foul in the first inning with Penn State already up 1-0. Later in the at-bat, he roped another offering by Andy Campbell, nestling it several feet inside the chalk for his first double and RBI on the afternoon.

Leading off the third, he made his second bid at a homer. Earlier, distance wasn't an issue, but this time he appeared to get just underneath it as he challenged the deepest part of the park. As the ball got caught in the wind blowing out, centerfielder Kyle Walter drifted back to the fence beside the '405' mark.

From Penn State baseball coach Robbie Wine's vantage point as the third-base coach, it was hard to tell whether he had gotten enough.

"In this weather it's hard to tell. It got cold and it was rainy out there," Wine said. "The ball wasn't carrying as well as it was earlier, but every time he steps to the plate now, it has a chance. That's the kind of feeling we have."

Those few miles per hour made the difference. Walter reached up and snared it with a glove raised just above the fence.

"I thought it stood a chance because I've been swinging a pretty good bat lately," Greenfield said. "Mainly, I thought it was going over his head but he made a good play on it and that was that."

Perhaps the Bucknell pitching staff learned its lesson, as Greenfield drew a walk to start the fourth before coming around to score on a double by Cory Wine. In his final at-bat he again doubled, this time to left-center to drive in Lance Thompson, giving him two RBI on the day.

Whether Greenfield will be in this lineup routinely this weekend remains to be seen. Spinelli was good to go today, but was held out as a precaution. Wine said he's going to look into putting the senior into the DH role, a position he's platooned with Jim Leitgeb and Joe Blackburn.

"Greenie's earned the DH spot so we'll stick him in there," Wine said. "We don't know. We'll look at Indiana the next couple of days as far as pitching matchups and see who hits who."