UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (May 11, 2005) - The Penn State offense pounded out 17 hits, and sophomore Aaron Markowitz (Lansdale, Pa.) had a strong pitching performance to lift the Nittany Lion baseball team to an 11-5 victory over Duquesne Wednesday at Beaver Field.

The win snapped a four game losing streak as Penn State hopes to carry the momentum into a crucial four-game series this weekend at Michigan State. The series will kick off with a 3 p.m. contest on Friday. All four games can be heard live on ESPN Radio WMAJ 1450 AM, and a link to listen will be available at www.GoPSUsports.com.

Markowitz gave up just one unearned run on five hits, while striking out six and walking just one in 7.0 innings to improve to 2-0.

Senior Michael Milliron (DuBois, Pa.) reached two more milestones in his 200th career game for the Nittany Lions, moving into sole possession of ninth place on Penn State's all-time hits list with 184. He also moved into 10th place on Penn State's doubles list with 33. He finished the day 3-for-4 with a double, a run scored and an RBI. He was lifted in the sixth inning for a pinch-runner. Juniors Lance Thompson (Brisbin, Pa.) and Aaron Greenfield (Villanova, Pa.) had two hits and two RBI each. Senior Arin Gelletly (Dayton, Md.) had walk, a double, two runs scored and two RBI, and junior Derrick Barr (So. Williamsport, Pa.) went 2-for-2 with two singles, a run scored, a sacrifice fly, a hit by pitch and three RBI. Freshman Scott Gaffney (Westbury, N.Y.) singled, doubled, scored a run and drove in another.

Penn State jumped out 1-0 in the first inning, with sophomore Jim Leitgeb (Elkton, Md.) coming around to score on an RBI double by Thompson.

Gelletly walked to lead off the second inning, and came around to score on Barr's sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.

The Nittany Lions broke the game open with five runs in the third inning to make it 7-0. Greenfield had an RBI single, Gelletly had a two-run double, Gaffney had a sacrifice fly and Barr added an RBI single in the inning.

Duquesne finally got to Markowitz in the sixth inning to cut Penn State's lead to 7-1. Eric Morrison reached on a throwing error, moved to third base on a single and then scored on a wild pitch. But the Nittany Lions came back with two more runs in the bottom half of the inning, aided by back-to-back two-out RBI singles by Milliron and Thompson to make it 9-1.

Barr hit another two-out RBI single in the seventh inning, and Greenfield laced an RBI single in the eighth inning to make it 11-1 Penn State.

Freshman Travis Garrett (Transfer, Pa.) made just his second career appearance, and pitched a scoreless eighth inning, but he ran into trouble in the ninth inning.

A two-run single by Mike Duganich, and sacrifice flies by Dante Plassio and Morrison cut Penn State's lead to 11-5. Garrett got Steve Maiolo to line out to first base to end the game.

For more information on Nittany Lion baseball, please visit Penn State's official athletic website at www.GoPSUsports.com.

 Penn State 11 Duquesne 5 Duquesne 000 001 004 - 5 10 0 Penn State 115 002 11X - 11 17 1 Pitchers: DUQ - Bob Hartle, John Smith (3), Alex Sharick (8). PSU - Aaron Markowitz, Travis Garrett (8). WP: Aaron Markowitz (2-0). LP: Bob Hartle (0-3). Time: 2:30.