Only one thing was on Matt Cavagnaro's mind as he slid safely into third base with a triple -- his third hit of the game -- during the sixth inning last night.

"What was going through my head is that we weren't winning in the middle of the game," Cavagnaro said. "We had to find a way to come back, so I did what I had to do to help the team out."

Cavagnaro scattered two more hits in the next two innings and drove in a pair of crucial runs in the eighth, which propelled the streaking Penn State baseball team to a 12-8 victory against intrastate foe Duquesne last night at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.

After starting the season with just two wins in their first 14 games, the Nittany Lions (17-19, 9-5 Big Ten) are an impressive 15-7 in their last 22 contests and have won five games in a row.

As for Cavagnaro, his five-hit performance, which was complemented by three runs scored, tied the team record for most hits in a single game, which had been reached by 11 different players in the past and was last accomplished by junior outfielder Brian Ernst last season against Michigan State.

Cavagnaro also became the first player -- in the college or minor league baseball ranks -- to have five hits in a game at Medlar Field.

But after Penn State wrapped up its ninth victory in the last 11 games, Cavagnaro was more pleased with his team's come-from-behind win than his personal milestone.

"We have a lot of character," Cavagnaro said. "We could easily just fold and just give in, but right now we're a resilient group and we're really fighting to the end."

Falling behind has not been uncommon for the Lions recently. During their current winning streak, they have trailed in four games and managed to mount a successful comeback in each. And last night was no different.

Penn State saw an early four-run lead erased almost single-handedly by Duquesne first baseman Aaron Janusey.

Janusey tied the game in the fourth inning with a tape measure, three-run home run that had no trouble clearing the 399-foot marker on the centerfield wall. In his very next at-bat in the sixth inning, he launched another bomb -- this time a two-run shot -- over the left-field wall that gave the Dukes (13-22) a 7-5 lead.

As Janusey crossed home plate with the first multi-home run performance at Medlar Field, junior catcher Joe Blackburn said the Lions' dugout was filled with confidence, not panic.

"There's never an attitude that we can't come back," Blackburn said. "If anything, there's an attitude that we're down and now we're going to come back.

"We don't really get tight and tense when we're down like that. We just realize we've been here before and we're going to do it again," he added. "There's no doubt in the locker room or the dugout at all."

Penn State showed that mindset by outscoring Duquesne 7-1 over the final three frames and keeping the momentum alive as it heads into another crucial weekend of Big Ten action.

"It's always important to keep things rolling," Blackburn said.