Penn State second baseman Kayce Zielinski stood in the on-deck circle with the bases loaded and the Nittany Lions down a run to Wisconsin on Saturday. The Badgers had just called upon relief pitcher Eden Brock in the top of the fifth inning, and Zielinski's eyes lit up.

Despite falling victim to a pair of Brock strikeouts the night before, Zielinski said she knew she was going to get a hit.

"Coming up [to bat] with the two strikeouts against that pitcher, I was really determined to go up there and get a hit," Zielinski said. "It felt really great to get a hit there."

Zielinski delivered a clutch, bases-clearing triple that opened the floodgates for more scoring as the Lions went on to earn an 8-3 victory and a weekend sweep of the Badgers (16-11, 0-4 Big Ten). Yesterday's scheduled doubleheader against Minnesota was canceled because of rain and unplayable field conditions and will not be rescheduled.

Penn State (16-12, 2-0) began the weekend with a win on Friday night in a pitcher's duel. Junior pitcher Ashley Esparza carried a no-hitter through five-and-a-third innings and helped her own cause with a suicide squeeze that plated freshman left fielder Ashley Griffith during Penn State's three-run fifth inning. A three-run lead was more than enough for Esparza, as she silenced the Wisconsin bats throughout much of the game and earned the 3-1 win.

Saturday, sloppy play plagued Penn State throughout the first four innings. Two base running mistakes, a botched suicide squeeze and two fielding errors allowed Wisconsin to amass a 3-0 lead. The Lions weren't able to plate any runs against Badger freshman pitcher Letty Olivarez.

The Lion dugout and cheering section were silent. The Badgers owned all of the energy and appeared poised to hand the Lions their first conference loss. Then Penn State head coach Robin Petrini challenged her batters.

"I pulled the team together and I said, 'Are you telling me this kid is good enough to shut you out?' and they were like 'No' so I said, 'Well, let's go' and then we went out and scored a bunch of runs off of her," Petrini said.

The Lions plated five runs in the top of the fifth thanks in large part to three Badger errors. Four of the five runs credited to Olivarez in the frame were unearned, and she was pulled before recording an out in the inning.

With two runs across the board and the bases loaded, Brock relieved Olivarez and retired the first two batters she faced. She was about to escape the jam unscathed when Zielinski cracked the first pitch off the left-center fence for the go-ahead triple.

"They had made a few miscues that we took advantage of, and once the momentum shifted, and you could really feel it shift, I wasn't surprised that we were able to get to them," Petrini said.

The Lions rode the momentum throughout the rest of the game. Three crucial insurance runs in the top of the seventh provided a five-run cushion, which Penn State maintained.

After a post-game victory speech and team field maintenance, Zielinski walked off the field side-by-side with her coach. The sophomore from Arlington, Texas was grinning from ear-to-ear when her coach offered her praise.

"You had the hit of the game," Petrini told Zielinski. "You broke the game open and got us going."