A lack of clutch hitting cost the Penn State softball team four crucial Big Ten games this weekend.

Iowa and Illinois both swept the Nittany Lions (21-17, 3-5 Big Ten), capped off with a 7-5 come-from-behind victory by the Fighting Illini yesterday.

After dropping the first game of the doubleheader, 4-3, the Lions' junior catcher Hollee Haines belted a grand slam in the first inning for a quick 4-0 Penn State lead. In the third inning, Illinois scored one run before Haines tacked on another RBI in the bottom frame.

Ashley Wright came into relief in bottom of the third and held the Lions scoreless, allowing two hits in 4.1 innings. Wright paved the way for an Illini offensive explosion in the sixth inning.

"She did throw well for Illinois," Penn State assistant coach Jen McIntyre said. "I don't want to take any credit away from her. She hit her spots and did what she needed to do."

After a leadoff home run and a flurry of singles and defensive errors, Lana Armstrong smacked a double to bring in the final two runs of the inning. The five-run inning paired with another run in the seventh solidified the sweep for the Illini.

Junior pitcher/utility player Jenn Reynolds was handed her ninth loss of the season while giving up 13 hits with only three strikeouts.

"J.R. was actually throwing very well," McIntyre said. "She only had [two] walks. She was hitting her spots, but to mow down a team like Illinois is going to take a lot. She did a pretty good job with it. Coming through that fourth time in the order, they had already seen her a couple of times."

For the pitching staff, junior Ashley Esparza began the weekend by tossing a complete game in Iowa on Friday night, surrendering only six hits and striking out five batters. Esparza's numbers closely resembled her counterpart, Hawkeye Brittany Weil, who holds the lowest ERA in the conference.

Weil allowed one less hit and struck out one more than Esparza, but the Hawkeye was the only one to have run support, as Iowa recorded a 1-0 win.

The Lions had their chance for a breakout inning in the fourth inning when they loaded the bases with no outs, but the opportunity was squandered with three consecutive outs.

Penn State left a staggering 29 runners on base this weekend, including nine innings where two or more batters were left stranded.

"We definitely left a lot of runners in scoring position," McIntyre said. "The offense was taking a lot of good cuts on the ball. We had a lot of line-drive outs and hit the ball right at some people. We left the runners on base and just couldn't come up with the RBIs in key situations."

The winless weekend results in a drop in the standings for Penn State, which is lacking conference meetings because of several cancellations. At a point where every conference meeting matters even more than any other year, the Lions were unable to capitalize.

"Our offense is coming around," McIntyre said. "This weekend, obviously not scoring the runs, hurt. [Iowa and Illinois] just came up with key hits when they needed it, and we didn't."