There’s something happening here. WVU’s baseball team is 20-6 now and won Wednesday night in dramatic fashion. Well, kind of — the winning run scored on an error. But before that was when things were wild.

The game-changing at-bat occurred in the beginning of the ninth. Down 9-6, Justin Parks led off with a single to center field, and Austin Markel followed with a walk. On a 2-0 fastball, sophomore Jedd Gyorko launched a game-tying three-run home run to left field that ricocheted off the Shell Building.

That’s a bomb, I assure you. And speaking of bombs, this team is well aware of its history.

Seems like every year WVU gets off to a hot start in nonconference play, then flounders in the Big East. It’s been a disappointment because I’ve always thought fans and students were waiting to get behind the program. It’d make sense. They get into a habit following football and basketball. Then comes the spring and the plug is pulled. What if they just kept the juice flowing for a while longer?

Maybe now we find out. Things, at least for now, just feel a little different.

“We’re really focused. Even the year before I got here they started off really hot and then they fell off,” noted junior right-handed pitcher Chris Enourato.

Heading into this weekend’s three-game series with Georgetown at Hawley Field, the Mountaineers are sitting atop the Big East standings with a 5-1 record – unfamiliar territory for a West Virginia baseball program that last advanced to NCAA Tournament play in 1996.

“We are real determined this year. Winning on the road was a goal for us because last year we won just three games on the road and that really killed us,” said Enourato. “We had a good team last year and the older guys on this team are really determined to keep us focused.”

Of course, it’s not all that different. The Mountaineers continue to master the late inning excitement.