Few were, or have been, hitting like Joe Blackburn.

Never mind Duquesne batter Aaron Janusey, who smacked two 400-foot home runs to the farthest reaches of right- and straight-away center last night.

The Duquesne first baseman's ball-crushing power made him the first player in Medlar Field at Lubrano Park history to have a multi-homer game and drive in five runs. But Janusey still couldn't touch the sizzling bat of Blackburn.

The Nittany Lions' catcher has hit a scorching .682 in his last six games, and continued his impressive play with a 4-for-4 effort from the plate, including two singles and two doubles.

Consistency trumped the best long-bombing efforts of Janusey, whose RBI total accounted for more than half of the Duke's runs in a four-run loss.

How Blackburn has continued this run, he has no idea -- he just wants to keep fanning the flames. He knows how Janusey and Co. must feel after seeing the scoreboard continually flash runs for Penn State in almost every inning.

"Anytime you can get the constant pressure on them, anytime they get a run you put up another one, they can never really close the gap," Blackburn said. "It's really demoralizing as a team to be on the opposite side of that."

Blackburn has now hit in 21 of his last 24 games and 11 of his last 12. Even senior Matt Cavagnaro, who showed a little oomph in his bat with five hits -- a homer short of the cycle -- praised Blackburn for his performance.

But just like Blackburn, Cavagnaro has been on fire, hitting .519 in his last six games. While Blackburn might have little explanation for his recent successes, his teammate has a good idea of what has gone right.

Cavagnaro said that Blackburn is staying away from bad pitches, and that is "winning half the battle right there."

And if he is right, then Blackburn is somewhat responsible for his own recent accomplishments at the plate, too -- or the other way around.

"Hitting is contagious," Cavagnaro said. "Once one person gets going, the next one, it just keeps flowing down the chain that's what we have been doing for the last week right now."

Penn State head coach Robbie Wine said he has expected to see this kind of production from Blackburn. Two years removed from Tommy John's surgery to repair torn ligaments in his throwing elbow, Blackburn has now recovered to reach a .387 batting average in his redshirt junior season.

With last night's performance, Blackburn has now reached base in eight straight plate appearances. Penn State's 18 hits were also a new season high, but more important were the runs coming off of that.

"You look at the scoreboard, and we are scoring two, three, two and two," Wine said. "Scoring in every inning, that's something you want in every inning. Even if it's just ones."