It had been more than a month since the Penn State baseball team managed to produce a come-from-behind win.

That was until last night, however.

After narrowly trailing Kent State for much of the game, the Nittany Lions put together one of their biggest innings of the season and rode it to their second consecutive win.

Thanks to a spark provided by freshman second baseman Louie Picconi's first collegiate hit, the Lions pushed six runs across home plate in the bottom of the seventh inning and ultimately defeated the Golden Eagles, 9-3, last night at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.

The victory was Penn State's first of the come-from-behind variety since it rallied for a one-run victory against then-No. 1 North Carolina on March 3.

"It shows that even though we're down, we're never out. That was shown by a lot of guys tonight and I think a lot of guys have that in their mindset now," said junior catcher Joe Blackburn, who went 3-for-3 at the plate with a RBI and a run scored.

"It wasn't a big deficit, but it was still a deficit that we overcame as a team, and it was a good win to get," he added.

Looking at the final score, Blackburn said that he could not remember the last time the Lions tacked nine runs on the board.

Just 11 days ago, in a win against Central Connecticut State, was the last time Penn State (7-15, 1-2 Big Ten) accomplished that feat. Perhaps it seemed much longer to Blackburn because of his team's recent offensive struggles.

Since that scoring outburst against the Blue Devils, the Lions had averaged less than three runs in their last fives games -- tallying more than three runs on only one occasion.

Six innings into last night's game, it appeared as if the Penn State offense was suffering through the same offensive rut that had plagued it for roughly the past two weeks.

But then the inning that the Lions had been waiting for finally came.

"We knew we needed to get something going, it was a 3-2 game," sophomore first baseman Cory Wine said. "We've been kind of struggling, but we needed a game like that."

Following back-to-back hits from Picconi and senior infielder Matt Cavagnaro that opened up the seventh frame, Wine got things going when he rolled a two-run single up the middle that put the Lions ahead for good.

Wine's second hit of the ballgame opened up the floodgates for four more Penn State runs in the seventh, giving the team a hard-fought win and a much-needed confidence boost as it heads into Big Ten play this weekend.

NOTES

Senior pitcher Matt Ogrodnik benefited from his teammates' big inning by picking up his first win of the season, even though he only pitched for 1 and 2/3 innings ... All but three hitters on Penn State's starting line-up recorded hits last night ... Junior infielder Mike Deese scattered three hits and drove in two runs against the Eagles. Over the last two games, he is 6-for-9 with four RBIs and two runs scored.