A couple fortunate bounces here and a few clutch hits there would have likely assured a much more enjoyable week for the Penn State baseball team.

Instead, the Nittany Lions return home with the same amount of wins that they left with after losing seven road games in a span of eight days.

Penn State (2-12) dropped three games each to No. 25 Wichita State and Oral Roberts and one to Kansas this past week to extend its worst losing streak of the last 10 seasons. The eight-game slide is the longest for the Lions since they fell in nine consecutive contests -- also in a stretch of eight days -- during March of the 1996 campaign.

For Joe Blackburn, the present-day Lions may have been able to avoid the lengthy skid had something -- anything -- bounced in their favor. But they just weren't that lucky.

"We were in every single game and it just seemed that we could not catch a break. I can't even remember all of the tough breaks we had this past week," said Penn State's junior catcher, who went 9-for-28 at the plate and drove in four runs during the seven-game slate.

"It feels like if someone said we'd have 20 hits and 11 runs in a game, [the other team] would have 21 hits and 12 runs. Things seem to be going the other team's way at this point with all of these close games, but that's what happens when you play nationally ranked teams."

Aside from an 18-5 drubbing against the Kansas Jayhawks (13-10) on Tuesday and a 12-0 rout at the hands of the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (10-9) on Thursday, the Lions had a legitimate shot at victory in every game.

In the other five contests, Penn State either held the lead or fought back to even the score or take the lead on four occasions. It also had no trouble putting the ball in play -- wracking up 48 hits, one shy of its opponents' 49 -- and putting runners on base.

The problem, according to Penn State head coach Robbie Wine, rested with his team's inability to come up with the right hit at the right time.

"We had 12 hits [to Oral Robert's seven in Saturday's 4-2 loss], but we just didn't get the big hits. Teams did a good job of shutting us down and stopping us from getting a key hit," Wine said.

"Early-season offense isn't going to be there, and the scheduling we've been under, and the pressure games and the tough pitching, hasn't allowed for some relaxed at-bats. Offense takes time to develop ... and you need some comfortable at-bats."

Wine said his team did turn a negative into a positive by taking some comfortable at-bats during the blowout losses to the Jayhawks and Eagles, which was evident during the final two games against Oral Roberts.

"I did see guys starting to come around during the last two games," he added. "It was good for these guys to go through those at-bats."

Notes

Speaking of not catching any breaks, senior infielder Matt Cavagnaro saw his 12-game hitting streak come to an end in last Sunday's 2-1 loss to Wichita State. Cavagnaro had hit safely in the final three games last season and all nine games this season until that point ... A decision will be made today determining the status of Wednesday's game against Pitt. The Lions were expected to play the inaugural game at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park against their intrastate rival, but that was before last weekend's storm.