The Penn State baseball club has been defined by its pitching staff for years. This year is no different.

This season, Penn State pitchers have posted seven shutouts, giving up more than five runs only twice.

Penn State (15-0, 9-0 New Penn West) hopes to continue the strong pitching against Robert Morris tonight at 8 and tomorrow in a doubleheader at 1 p.m.

The starting rotation has been led this season by Pete Chalfin, Greg Lisa, Brian Binder and Jason Shirey.

Penn State coach Bill Lippert has been impressed by his team's pitching all season, certainly after two shutouts pitched by Lisa and Chalfin last weekend.

"I am really happy about [that]," Lippert said after those games. "Greg Lisa especially was just outstanding."

Lippert is accustomed to being around good pitching. Previously, he was the team's pitching coach and a pitcher himself.

He got a chance to talk about his career with the team with his old teammates at last week's Alumni Weekend, highlighted by the first ever all-alumni game. There, Lippert got the chance to show off his current pitching staff.

When pitcher John Parulski entered the game to close out a 6-0 win, Lippert introduced Parulski to the alumni known as "Big John Stud."

Parulski and Dave Hine are two new hurlers to the team this season. Their main duties include finishing games for the starters and helping preserve shutouts and small leads.

"John came in and shut it down," Lippert said. "He put up some zeros and we scored some more runs and we won."

All season, the starters have been keeping the club in games, allowing the offense to come through.

On Saturday, Shirey gave up five runs early but held on long enough as his team came back from a 5-1 deficit to beat Pittsburgh, 13-7.

Lisa and Chalfin have not given up a run in conference play. Both are 3-0 in games against New Penn West conference opponents. Lisa is second on the team with 28 strikeouts and 1.11 ERA. Chalfin, considered the ace of the staff, has a 0.41 ERA and leads the team with 36 strike outs. Lippert echoed Chaflin's season-long dominance.

"Well obviously he's very talented," Lippert said. "I think the thing that sets him apart from everyone else is his competitiveness. He's just a real battler out there."

Lippert said that even when his starters are not at their best, they grind through and pull out wins as evidence by the team's flawless record.

With six more games in the way of a perfect regular season, Lippert likes his team's chances even when his pitchers struggle.

"You need guys like that," Lipper said. "When they are not at their best, they still find a way to win."