In the standings, the Penn State softball team split its four games this weekend, but the final homestand was still successful.

Purdue swept its doubleheader against the Nittany Lions (24-20, 8-9 Big Ten) yesterday, 2-1 in the second game and 1-0 in the first meeting. The losses came after Penn State completed a sweep of its own against Indiana on Friday and Saturday, 4-1 and 14-1 respectively. The flood of runs against Indiana and its battle against Purdue's pitching was enough for the return of positive morale in the Penn State dugout.

"We're a very, very good-hitting team -- always have been," junior shortstop Jen Acunto said Saturday. "It has been frustrating when we haven't really been able to get the job done. It felt really good to pile it on basically. As mean as that sounds, we needed it."

The Boilermakers (30-31-1, 5-7) provided two pairs of pitching duels that featured their senior ace Brooke Baker. Baker and Penn State starter, junior Ashley Esparza, both went the distance for two complete games yesterday.

"It was a pitcher's duel," Purdue coach Kim Maher said. "It was almost both teams sitting on their heels waiting for something to happen."

It was the Boilermakers that made something happen with two solo home runs and heads-up base running after a wild pitch from Esparza. The three combined runs were all the Boilermakers needed to sweep the series. It was the first time Purdue took two season games from the Lions since 1997.

"The credit goes to Baker for them," Penn State head coach Robin Petrini said. "She really kept us at bay and was able to shut the door every time we made a threat on her.

"She has pitched a ton of innings for them in Big Ten play. With her on the mound, their team has a lot of confidence that they're going to win that game."

Besides denying Penn State two conference wins, Baker and Purdue put a damper on the final home game for four Penn State seniors.

"Of course it's a heartbreaker everytime we lose close games like that," senior outfielder Meghan Wolfer said. "Their pitcher just shut us down whenever we got on base. We just had a hard time with her. Sometimes that happens. It just sucks that it happened on our last home game, but what can you do."

The Lions batters hit the ball hard yesterday but just couldn't get the kind of breaks they had against the Hoosiers earlier in the weekend. After a disheartening loss to Bucknell last Tuesday and its cancellation against Akron on Wednesday, Penn State went into its final home weekend with a need for offense.

The Lions' offense exploded in both its meetings with Indiana, outscoring the opponent, 18-2. Sophomore Kayce Zielinski led the charge with a 4-for-4 performance highlighted by a grand slam and six runs batted in.

Zielinski was joined by all of her teammates in the 14-1 victory where every starter reached base at least once.

With only four regular season games remaining, the Lions are going into the last stretch after a weekend that showcased what their offense can produce.

"It is a credit to the entire lineup when one through nine can get the job done," Acunto said Saturday. "It's huge that every single person in the lineup hit. Not just one through four or five through seven. It was everybody, and that's a great credit to our offense.

"It was definitely a great confidence booster, and we needed it."