Robbie Wine wanted his first two batters in the lineup -- Blake Lynd and Wes Borden -- to be aggressive on the basepaths during Wednesday night's 9-3 win over La Salle.

The Penn State baseball coach got his wish early and the aggressiveness on the basepaths, as well as two crucial errors by the Explorers, led to eight runs in the first two innings.

"Games like this, especially," Wine said about the importance of causing havoc on the basepaths. "We got a lead early. I want Borden to steal bases and he had a green light. Blake had a green light. It's not only being fast, it's about getting jumps, reading pitchers' moves, picking the right pitch to run. That's what we're trying to get back in the flow of things again."

Lynd led off the bottom of the first by walking, then stole second base. He came around and scored when Borden reached on an error. After Borden got to first base, he, too, stole second.

Borden's ground ball went through the five-hole of La Salle second baseman Jeff Flax. Had that error not been made, the Nittany Lions would not have scored a single run in the bottom of first -- instead they scored four.

The theme continued in the next inning as Lynd popped up to short. The Explorers' shortstop, Brian Meagher, was positioned perfectly for the catch. But he fell, letting Lynd reach base. This time the Lions received three free runs.

It was a change of pace for Penn State, which had lost its last five games.

"Seemed the past five games, it seemed like everytime you look up the other team is diving, making a play, things just weren't going our way," Lynd said. "Things like that get you rolling, as a team it feels like it gives you more confidence."

Borden had little doubt that the Lions' aggressiveness on the basepaths attributed to the errors.

He said that when fielders are reacting to runners' movement during the pitch, they are worrying about getting the ball out of the glove faster.

Even while Borden was at third base, he would take big leads and pretend to break on the pitch.

However, Penn State wasn't entirely successful with baserunning. The Lions had two runners caught stealing -- Borden was thrown out at second with a perfect throw and left fielder Sean Deegan was also caught at second.

Right fielder Rick Marlin was thrown at third after trying to stretch a double to the wall in left field into a triple. Louie Picconi was thrown out at third base after he wanted to advance from first to third on a Lynd single. Lastly, Grant Youngblood was out at second after trying to turn a single into a double.

Even though the Lions were thrown out on the bases five times, Borden expects to see the same aggressiveness they displayed against La Salle when they face conference foes.

"If we get the right matchup, like a guy that has a time [to the plate] that we know we can get the right jump then he's going to give us the green light," Borden said. "I think going into this weekend, it's just going to be something we're trying to translate over."