With spring ball to talk about and the production of We Are Penn State 2011 going on behind the scenes here at BSD, we haven't found much time to give the Nittany Lion baseball team a whole lot of front page love in the past couple of weeks. Fear not, though, as we're here today to get you up to speed on what has been a productive  run to open Big Ten play for Penn State.

As junior infielder Sean Parvin might tell you, the crew has been "owning souls" lately, taking series from Illinois and Northwestern to begin conference play as well as adding a victory against Pittsburgh last night at Medlar Field to push its record to 20-10 on the season. Here's a look back on the action.

Illinois, April 1-3

In game one Friday afternoon, Penn State came ready to play by opening up a 6-0 lead in the first inning. The Fighting Illini fought their way bit by bit, however, and Penn State dropped its Big Ten opener at home 7-6. It wasn't a pretty way to get things going in the league, but the team's luck did get better from there.

On Saturday afternoon, starter John Walter turned in an excellent start, scattering seven hits, conceding just one run and striking out nine in a 3-1 complete game victory. The game also included probably the most bizarre play of the season to date. We'll let GoPSUSports.com take it from here:

In the inning, Penn State turned one of the more unusual triple plays in baseball. With runners on second and third, Davis Hendrickson fired a rocket to first. After snagging the ball on a hop, [Joey] DeBernardis stepped on the bag to retire the batter. Noticing the two Illinois runners standing around third, DeBernardis began sprinting across the infield as Brandon Hohl, who started the play on second, tried to retreat back to his base.

With confusion sweeping the field, DeBernardis fired to Glantz, who quickly tagged Hohl for the second out. Briefly thinking he could score on that throw, Matt Dittman made a break for home before reconsidering his decision. Stranded in no man's land, he tried to scoot back to third, but Glantz tossed a strike to Steranka, who made a great tag on Dittman to complete the incredible play.

In the rubber match on Sunday, Penn State put together a big rally, scoring eight runs in the fourth inning to topple the Illini 13-4 and take the series. Jordan Steranka had a monster day for the Lions, finish 3/5 with a home run and six RBIs. Starter Heath Johnson allowed just two hits and struck out six in five innings to earn his first victory of the season.

After the game, coach Robbie Wine was pleased with the victory and the series win.

"Everybody I thought did a pretty good job," Wine said. "They put the ball in play, they did things that we were trying to do, pitching did well enough to keep us in the game and...Illinois's a good club. We were lucky to score eight on them."

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The action was fast and furious at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park over the weekend as the Penn State baseball team opened its home schedule with four games in three days. The Lions hosted Le Moyne for a three game set beginning Friday, beating the Dolphins in two out of three, then capped off the weekend with a victory against Albany on Sunday afternoon. 

The weekend's results were a mixed bag for the Lions. Though winning three of four in a weekend is typically good news, it's less exciting when the loss comes to a subpar Division-2 team in the home opener, and the Lions learned that the hard way by falling to Le Moyne 10-6 on Friday.

Nevertheless, Penn State improved its record on the year to 15-7 ahead of a mid-week matchup against Kent State on Tuesday afternoon. After that, it'll be time for Big Ten play as Illinois comes calling in Happy Valley starting Friday.

We'll take a look back at the games after the jump.

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Basketball and wrestling season might be over in Happy Valley, but here at BSD, we're not quite ready to let our coverage sink into full offseason mode just yet. The spring sports are just getting into full swing, including baseball, which opens its home slate against Le Moyne today at 3:35 P.M. inside beautiful Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.

The Nittany Lions are off to a nice 12-6 start this season. Unfortunately, since we've been so wrapped up with the winter sports for the last few months, that's pretty much all we can tell you. Lucky for us, Emily Kaplan of the Daily Collegian was gracious enough to do a quick Q and A with us to bring us up to speed on all the baseball action thus far. For further coverage, check out her preview of this three game set against Le Moyne and be sure to check out the Collegian's baseball blog, Inside The Dugout.

BSD: So, how is Penn State doing so far? Any big wins? Tough losses?

EK: The team, which played its first 18 games of the season on the road, is off to a great start. Penn State took two of three from No. 26 Wichita State last weekend, and the guys said that was a huge confidence boost heading into their home slate and the Big Ten season.

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Penn State catcher Ben Heath homers against the hated Pitt Panthers at Trees Field.

As a team, it certainly wasn't a banner year for your Penn State baseball team.

The Nitts finished the season last in the Big Ten, and were one of only two teams in the conference, the other being Northwestern who tied for third in league play, to finish with a losing record overall.

There were certainly bright spots, though, so things aren't all bad.  On April 13, Penn State rallied late for a come-from-behind victory over then No. 24 Pittsburgh.  The Lions also managed to take two of three from Ohio State before sweeping Michigan State at home April 30-May 2, arguably slamming the door on both teams' post season hopes.  In the Michigan State series,  Penn State pounded Sparty 49-13 in the three game set.

But perhaps the best news for Penn State baseball came yesterday, when catcher Ben Heath was selected in the fifth round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Houston Astros with the 153rd overall pick.  Heath is Penn State's highest pick among position players since Greg Vogel in 1976.

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I had a history professor in college, I don't remember her name or even the class she taught, but she would routinely stop her lecture in order to make sure we understood that no one knew how to say things quite like the ancient Greeks. In a constant attempts to get at the meaning of something, she was routinely frustrated with the fact that the English language simply wasn't capable of getting at the truth.

And so I can only imagine if she somehow got herself into computing Points Per Possession for college basketball teams and indulged in the related analysis.

When you take the offensive and defensive PPP stats, you can get a net number that allows for a projected record (Pythagorean Wins, which are also commonly used in baseball).

When you stray from that number, the term "luck" is used to explain the difference. As John Gasaway of Basketball Prospectus explains:

Luck is defined by me as: the difference between a team's actual winning pct. (in-conference, the way I do it) and the winning pct. that would be predicted by that team's per-possession scoring margin. For instance if a team scores one point per possession and gives up one point, they would be predicted to go 9-9 in the Big Ten. If they go 11-7 they're "lucky." If they're 7-11 they're "unlucky." This post by a Georgetown blogger covers a lot of the same ground that I do and has way better graphics.

And here is where things take a horrible and tragic turn. 

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The weekend before this past one was a brutal experience, softened slightly by everyone expecting it to be so.  Texas swept the Nittany Lions, and although there were some great individual performances against the Longhorns, the no-hitter put an end to the sweep and the team was forced to regroup.

And on that note the schedule couldn't have turned out to be any better.  While then #8 now #2* Texas went on to beat Texas State and take two of three on the road against nationally ranked Stanford, Penn State had a chance to break from the elite and earn some wins the old fashion way.

*Or #3 or #4, baseball is fun this way.

A three game weekend against (now) 2-11 Akron, 3-11 Lehigh, and 1-6 St. Joseph's was just what the doctor ordered.

3/7/09 - Penn State 10, Akron 4

For five innings on Friday domination was spelled M-A-C-Y.  Look at this statline:

His YTD stats?  An ERA of .90, BA against .145, and an SO/BB of 24 (!) / 7. 

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Going against the Penn State Athletic Department grain, the baseball team scheduled their first regular series of the season against a perennial powerhouse in the UT Longhorns. Rather than give the team a couple of weeks to get used to the warm weather, Coach Wine messed with Texas (R).

To no one's surprise, it didn't go very well.

2/27/2009 - Texas 9, Penn State 2

The storyline here was how well #1 starter Lorentson would recover from giving up 10 runs (7 earned) on 11 hits in 4.2 innings against St. John's in the season opener.

It probably could have gone better. He only made it through 3.2 on Friday, giving up 7 runs (3 earned) on six hits, SO/BB of 3/3. Cianciolo, Palen, Pierce and Alfreno all did a nice job of finishing the game for him, but the damage was done and Penn State wouldn't be able to recover from the 7 run fourth.

The thing that has to really be grinding Lorentson's gears is the errors his teammates are saddling him with. Deese had two errors in the season opener; Nakata has two errors on Friday. While it makes it hard to get through innings, it's also an emotional let down to know you could have been out of the inning with everything in tact.

Penn State was getting on base, they had 9 hits and two walks, but the middle of the order often times left them stranded. The team finished with 10 LOB.

2/28/2009 - Texas 6, Penn State 2

Similar to the Friday night game, Penn State was playing well until things unraveled in the 4th; Texas scored four on just two hits. It was a classic shoot yourself in the foot frame, with the opening batter getting beamed, two more walks and a couple of wild pitches allowing everyone to move us.

Deese went 0-3, making him 0-8 in the series up to that point. Wine continued to hit behind him, however, and had himself a good weekend. His current line is .444/.500/.667.

2/28/2009 - Texas 1, Penn State 0

T.J. Macy gets the loss here but showcases exactly why keeping track of a pitcher's W/L is so stupid. He went eight full innings and gave ups just one run on five hits, SO/BB 7/3. He leads the team with a 1.59 ERA and has an avg against of .137.

He just couldn't get any support. Penn State had five hits on the day but couldn't get anyone in. It was still a good showing, though, and seeing Macy play so well for the second straight start in encouraging.

3/1/2009 - Texas 9, Penn State 0

And just when it looked like the team was coming around, Texas' fourth starter, Brandon Workman, throws a nine inning no-hitter.

At least we didn't have any errors.

There isn't too much to say, really. Workman struck out 10, including leaving Deegan just one SO short of a golden sombrero. He walked just two.

The 10th Inning...So the four game sweep leaves Penn State sitting at 2-5, and while that looks awful it's as good as anyone could have hoped for before the season. It would have been nice to steal one in Austin, but the Longhorns are now 9-0 and look like a legitimate CWS contender. As much as PSU baseball has improved in the last three years, Texas is in another stratosphere.

Penn State has some time to rest and relax in the snow before taking on fellow northerners Akron and St. Joseph's this weekend in Palm Beach.