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MORGANTOWN -- Returning from a season opening, three-game series in Atlanta, veteran WVU coach Randy Mazey and his staff looked at the advanced weather forecast for the area, made a call to Canisius College coach Matt Mazurek and elected to open the home half of the Mountaineers' baseball season early.
Just how early?
Well, up until Tuesday's 2 p.m. contest, WVU had never played a home game in the month of February.
And, thanks to sophomore Tristen Hudson's ninth-inning single that brought home pinch runner T.J. Lake with the winning run in the Mountaineers' 5-4 decision over Canisius College the decision to open the season early became a good one.
"Was it a good decision?" Mazey asked. "Well do you see that scoreboard? Do you see the team at the bottom (WVU) with five runs and the team at the top (Canisius) with four? Yeah, it was a good one."
The last-at-bat heroics came after the Golden Griffins (1-3) knotted the game at four in the top half of the ninth.
A triple by third baseman Stephen Bennett to open the top of the ninth was followed by a wild pitch by Mountaineers' reliever Sam Kessler to tie the game at 4-4.
"I'm not a real patient hitter so I went up there looking for something early from him (Canisius pitcher Jarod Burmaster)," said Hudson. "He gave me what I was looking for and I was able to make solid contact.
"It (getting the winning hit) is a great feeling, but, more importantly, it helped us get a win and that is what this team needed right now."
And, it set up the possibility of more February games in the future.
"It's something that we'll look at," Mazey said. "A lot of things had to happen for this game to be played (Tuesday). First, we needed someone willing to come down on short notice and they (Canisius) did. Then we needed a window in the weather, and we got that (Tuesday)."