TORONTO -- West Virginia University baseball coach Randy Mazey loves watching his former players perform on the MLB stage. Saturday’s game between the Blue Jays and Orioles at Rogers Centre -- featuring WVU alums Alek Manoah and John Means -- presented a rare two-for-one opportunity, but Mazey had already committed to attend a wedding of another former player.
“Unlike Manoah [vs.] Means, the wedding was scheduled well in advance,” said Mazey, who received pitch-by-pitch updates from two WVU coaches who watched Toronto’s 10-1 win in person.
Manoah got the better end of the first matchup between Mountaineers starting pitchers, striking out 10 and allowing just one run over seven innings. That capped a stellar year in which Manoah led American League rookies in ERA (3.22) and WHIP (1.05) while placing second in strikeouts per nine innings (10.24).
“I chose to go to West Virginia because it’s an extremely blue-collar school, and I believed in what they were doing, and I believed where they were going,” Manoah said. “Now, you look at four years after my freshman year there, and I’m pitching in the big leagues against John Means. … For me, it was a special day.”
Despite a rough stat line from Means (three innings, seven runs, six earned), the Orioles’ ace turned in a strong season that closely resembled his numbers from 2019, when he was an All-Star and the runner-up for the AL Rookie of the Year Award. His WHIP (1.03) is the lowest by an O's starter this century (minimum 140 innings).
Manoah and Means took distinctly different routes from Morgantown, W.Va., to the Majors. Manoah was the 11th overall pick in the 2019 Draft, while Means was an 11th-rounder in '14. Manoah threw 35 innings in the Minors over parts of two seasons, while Means tossed 622 2/3 innings over a five-year climb.
According to Mazey, the personalities of the two pitchers are on opposite ends of the spectrum, too.
“Means is mild-mannered, quiet,” the coach said. “Not flashy. He’s not a fist-pumper, and a 'tell a hitter to go sit down after he strikes him out' kinda guy.”
Manoah is much louder, flashier and more eager to pump his fist. He also rose to a leadership role early in his time at WVU, which likely helped him sustain a high degree of confidence during his ascent with the Blue Jays.
“I don’t believe that you can pick your leaders or pick team captains, you know?” Mazey said. “Those guys just kind of rise to the surface. The best leadership quality that I think guys can have is not only they’re doing the best of their ability, but they’re making players around them better. That’s what AK did. [When] he was in the dugout, if you weren’t playing hard, AK was gonna have a problem with that.”
Saturday’s game between Toronto and Baltimore was as good a sign as any of how far WVU’s baseball program has come.
Prior to Mazey’s coaching tenure, which began in 2013, the Mountaineers didn’t even have locker rooms. (Mazey recalled one alumnus telling him, "We used to have to dress out of the back of our cars.") They've since added a $21 million facility. And now, they have multiple pitchers in the Majors.
“For the kids in our program, that’s the dream we’re telling them about,” Mazey said.