MORGANTOWN, W.Va.–For West Virginia’s Alek Manoah, baseball is one of his greatest loves and has always been.
“Baseball is everything I’ve dreamed of doing since I was three years old when I first picked up a baseball,” he said. “I wake up in the morning and I think about it. I have dreams about it at night and I want to do nothing else but to play baseball. I enjoy the workouts. I enjoy coming out and the long bus rides. I enjoy everything about playing baseball and just being around a good group of guys everyday basically. Just being able to play a game for a living is just a dream come true for me.”
Some athletes have a raw talent and can go on to do big things, while others just enjoy the game from the stands.
But Manoah has always had a true knack for the game.
“He’s always had it,” WVU head coach Randy Mazey said. “It’s always been in there. He was a super talented kid when we signed him out of high school. He had all three pitches. He just had to make that decision that he wanted to be good. Once you make that decision and take pride in it, then your actions follow. Once he made the decision everything fell into place for him.”
Last season was full of ups and down for Manoah. He had a 3-5 record in 23 appearances for the Mountaineers with 60 strikeouts and a 4.00 earned run average in 54 innings.
At times, control issues plagued the Miami, Fla. native but when he pitched in the Cape Cod league last summer, it was like the switch flipped and Manoah could throw strikes consistently.
While playing for the Chatham Anglers, he went 4-3 with a 3.57 ERA while striking out 68 batters. However, Manoah issued just 14 walks 45.1 innings.
Playing in the Cape Cod league was advantageous for the right-hander.
“It’s amazing, getting to play against the best players in the country day in and day out,” he said. “Just being able to go out there and get better day in and day out is really huge. Being able to build off of some of those adversities and that success just helps me become who I want to be as a pitcher.”
That success appears to be carrying over this season for the Mountaineers.
“He’s been really good so far, knock on whatever I want to knock on,” Mazey said. “But I think he made a decision this summer that he’s going to get really serious about playing this game for a living and I think the results have showed. He’s been pitching really well so far this spring.”
Without BJ Myers, Manoah will be expected to carry the workload for the Mountaineers.
“He’s going to have to be a workhorse for us, go out and give us 100 to 120 pitches every game,” Mazey added.
Currently, the South Dade Senior High School graduate has all the right stuff. That happened when he decided to get serious about the game.
“He has command of all three pitches,” Mazey said. “The stuff is off the charts. He throws really hard. He’s got a great change up, a great slider but he’s putting it all together. And he’s cleaned up his body. That’s the first thing he had to do. He couldn’t do that until he made a decision to clean up his body like we all try and do every day. But he’s done that and I think that’s what enabled him to turn the corner.”
With expectations high for Manoah, the junior must also take on another role as one of WVU’s veterans. The Mountaineers will look for him to become a leader on and off the field.
“I’ve been, since I got here, trying to help people,” Manoah said. “The freshmen, they look up to me a lot. When they have tough outings or even when they have good outings, they come to me and want to know my opinion.
“My job is to watch everybody, to help everybody. When I finish pitching my job isn’t to sit on the bench and not pay attention. This guy might ask me how he pitched later, so you got to look into that. I feel like they really enjoy my opinion and I feel like they really get better off of it, which to me feels really great. But being able to help others, they are the future of this program. The Mountaineers are only going to go up.”
WVU’s season begins on Friday against Kennesaw State in the Atlanta Challenge and the junior can’t wait to take the field.
“I’m excited,” Manoah said. “All the work you put in during the offseason, everything you do in the spring, it’s just really exciting to finally get going come Friday.”
Cover Photo Credit: Jeff Ruff, BGS
