MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — West Virginia University (WVU) is the only school in the Big XII that does not have a softball team. Conversely, Iowa State University (ISU) is the only school in the Big XII that does not have a baseball team. Upon learning this, Twitter fan pages from both schools have found a solution that benefits everyone.

The story began in March with WVU fan Twitter page @WVUBarstool tweeting out their support for Iowa State Softball after learning that they don’t have a baseball team to root for and that WVU doesn’t have a softball team. This caught the attention of one of Iowa State’s softball players, Lea Nelson (@leacj21) who tweeted her support for the adoption of their team by the Mountaineer faithful.

@WVUBarstool replying to @leacj21 on Twitter: “Since we don’t have a softball team we have decided to be your biggest supporter”

@leacj21 on Twitter: “Now that’s how you support women’s athletics!!!”

This past week in Stillwater, Oklahoma both teams happened to be scheduled to meet with Oklahoma State University’s (OSU) respective squads during the same time frame. With the growing niche support from Mountaineer fan pages, the two schools finally were able to make the alliance official as the ISU Softball team attended a WVU Baseball game to support the Mountaineers against OSU.

This move was met with a positive response from the WVU Twitter community and even spurred WVU Baseball Coach, Randy Mazey and the official WVU Baseball Twitter page to acknowledge the support from the ISU squad.

@CoachMazey on Twitter: “Shout out to the Iowa State @CycloneSB team. Thanks for coming and cheering on the @WVUBaseball Mountaineers tonight in Stillwater. You had our guys fired up to win! Good luck tomorrow.”

@WVUBaseball on Twitter: “West Virginia baseball 🤝 Iowa State softball Thanks for the support @CycloneSB! #HailWV“

Following WVU’s 9-5 victory over Oklahoma State, Iowa State played their softball squad the next day, earning a 3-2 victory against OSU. Following the game, the official ISU Softball page tweeted out a victory graphic with the caption “*cue Sweet Caroline*.” Following the game, the players from ISU gathered on their bus and sang Country Roads to celebrate their victory and adoption by the WVU fanbase. You can watch that here.