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MORGANTOWN -- For only the second time in the 127-year history of West Virginia University baseball, the Mountaineers played in the month of February.
Coming off a series victory over Georgia Southern (2-1) over the weekend, head coach Randy Mazey and his staff took a look at the weather forecast for the Morgantown area and saw that they could add another game to their already 54-game schedule.
A call to Towson Matt coach Tyner and two days later the Tigers were at Monongalia County Ballpark for a 2 p.m. encounter.
As has been the case early in the season, WVU received solid starting pitching as junior left-hander Nick Snyder, who was making is second start of the season, hurled no-hit ball over the game's first three innings.
But, unlike the first seven games, the Mountaineers bats began showing signs of life.
Andrew Zitel's two-out single plated two runs in West Virginia's three-run first while the home team lit up the scoreboard for single runs in the second and third -- the latter coming off a Darius Hill solo shot to left as the Mountaineers put a five-spot on the board before visitors got their first hit in the fourth.
The 8-3 final marked the second time this season the Mountaineers have scored eight runs in a game. They collected nine hits as well as eight walks.
"You know it was important (to get this game)," Mazey said. "We haven't been swinging the bats all that well lately and to go up to Corvalis not swinging the bats all that great wouldn't have been ideal.
"So, we wanted to get the hitters back out here to see some pitches and get some guys swinging the bats pretty well going into this weekend."
Winners of three of their last four games, WVU heads to Oregon State for a three-game series beginning Friday.
'We're getting ready to find out just how good the Mountaineers are on the mound," Mazey said. "We know what we are facing up there. We're not going to go up there and be in awe or anything like that. We've played plenty of teams of this caliber and we've played well against them so I feel pretty confident in our group going up there."