Manoah Named Student-Athlete of the Week

April 08, 2019 01:50 PM | Baseball, General, Golf, Gymnastics, Rowing, Tennis, Track & Field

By: WVU Athletics Communications

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Following an eight-inning, shutout performance, junior right-handed pitcher Alek Manoah of the West Virginia University baseball team has been named the WVU Student-Athlete of the Week, presented by University Apartments.

Manoah struck out 11 batters to lead WVU to an 11-1 victory at No. 23 Oklahoma State on Friday. Manoah had another fantastic start and held OSU to no runs on just three hits with no walks, as he led the Big 12 in innings pitched (8.0) and strikeouts (11) and was third in opponent batting average (.115). He was the only Big 12 pitcher last week to not allow a run in more than 4.0 innings pitched.

In the win, Manoah retired the side in order five times and limited the Cowboys to just three baserunners, only one of which advanced to second base, in the eighth inning. Manoah earned his sixth quality start in eight starts this season.

This Week in Baseball: The Mountaineers travel to Maryland before their third consecutive Big 12 weekend series against a top-25 foe, vs. No. 11 Texas Tech from April 12-14 … WVU and UMD meet on Wednesday, April 10, at 4 p.m. ET, at Bob "Turtle" Smith … West Virginia then continues Big 12 play against No. 11 Texas Tech at Monongalia County Ballpark, beginning on Friday, April 12, at 6:30 p.m. … the series continues on Saturday, at 4 p.m., before the finale on Sunday, at 1 p.m. … tickets for the Big 12 series are available at WVUGAME.com, by calling 1-800-WVU GAME, at the Mountaineer Ticket Office at the WVU Coliseum or on game day at Monongalia County Ballpark … Friday is Friday Night Happy Hour, with half-off beverages available from 5:30-6:30 p.m., and all fans can play Baseball Bingo to win prizes … Saturday is Family Day, where fans can purchase four tickets and receive a $10 concession voucher for just $25 … Saturday also is an emoji t-shirt giveaway to the first 300 fans, courtesy of WVU Medicine … the weekend concludes on Sunday with the second of four trading card giveaways, courtesy of United Bank, to the first 250 kids, 16 and under … Sunday also is Kids Day, presented by WVU Medicine, which features a Kids Zone, inflatables and Mr. Twister's Balloon Art and Face Painting, and kids can run the bases after the game.

Last Week in Baseball: WVU went 3-1 last week, with a Backyard Brawl victory against Pitt and a series win at No. 23 Oklahoma State … West Virginia beat Pitt, 5-4, on April 3, thanks to a go-ahead sacrifice fly by Kevin Brophy after the Panthers tied the game with a three-run sixth inning … WVU scored four runs in the bottom of the second inning to take a 4-1 lead, which included a two-run home run by Brophy … Zach Ottinger earned his first career win (1-0), while Sam Kessler picked up the save … Nick Snyder allowed one run on one hit in 5.0 innings … West Virginia opened the series at No. 23 OSU with an 11-1 win on April 5, as Alek Manoah pitched a career-long 8.0 shutout innings with 11 strikeouts, no walks and three hits allowed and the offense scored at least one run in each of the first five innings … Marques Inman led the offensive attack, which totaled 17 hits, with four hits and four RBIs … the series was evened with a 9-5 loss on April 6, as WVU led 5-0 after four innings before the Cowboys rallied with one in the fifth, three in the sixth and five in the eighth … Jackson Wolf had his second quality start of the year with a career-best seven strikeouts … in 7.0 innings, he allowed four runs, one of them earned, on eight hits with two walks … Brophy had two hits, two RBIs and hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning … West Virginia won the series with a 4-2, comeback win on April 7 … WVU erased an early 2-1 deficit with two runs in the eighth inning and added an insurance run in the ninth … Kade Strowd earned the win and had a season-high 10 strikeouts in a career-best 7.1 innings pitched … Strowd held OSU to two runs on four hits with four walks … Darius Hill led the team with three hits and two RBIs … Hill drove in the game's first run in the first inning, scored the game-tying run in the eighth and added an RBI single in the ninth.

Notes: West Virginia is 19-12 on the season, 9-1 at home, 10-11 on the road and 4-5 in Big 12 play … WVU is 5-4 against top-25 teams and 10-8 against teams that made the 2018 NCAA Tournament … the Mountaineers have won back-to-back series against top-25 teams and have won five of their last six games … WVU is 17-6 when scoring first and 11-5 when scoring in the first inning … a program-record crowd of 3,487 fans saw WVU beat Pitt in the Backyard Brawl on April 3 … it was the fifth home crowd of 3,000 or more fans in team history and eclipsed the previous record of 3,415, set on April 15, 2017, against No. 3 TCU … with the Backyard Brawl win, WVU improved to 107-88 all-time against Pitt and has won five in a row and 10 of the last 13 in the series … Brophy hit two home runs last week and has six on the season and 12 in his career … Kessler collected two saves and has six in 2019 … the Mountaineers have won all six games that Snyder has started this year, all midweek matchups … Manoah has six quality starts in eight starts this season, while he has notched double-digit strikeouts three times … all three of WVU's starting pitchers in the series at Oklahoma State – Manoah, Wolf and Strowd – had quality starts and went at least 7.0 innings … in three games at Oklahoma State totaling 22.1 innings, WVU's starters combined to allow just three earned runs with 28 strikeouts.

This Week in Gymnastics: The Mountaineers (19-12, 0-7) have concluded their 2019 season.

Last Week in Gymnastics: WVU scored 195.425 and finished fourth in the second session of the NCAA Ann Arbor Regional Championships Second Round on April 5, at the University of Michigan's Crisler Center … No. 2 UCLA placed first (197.675), No. 14 Nebraska finished second (196.8) and Illinois placed third (196.175) … WVU finished third on floor exercise (49.175) and fourth on vault (48.475), uneven bars (48.875) and balance beam (48.9) … senior Jaquie Tun finished sixth in the all-around with a 39.125 total, and junior Abby Kaufman placed seventh (39.1) … senior Kirah Koshinski anchored the floor lineup and finished fourth overall with a 9.875 score, the second-best mark awarded … Koshinski also paced on vault and balance beam, finishing 10th on both events with scores of 9.8 and 9.825, respectively … Tun paced WVU on uneven bars and finished fourth with a career-high matching score of 9.875.

Notes: The Mountaineers' final score was the team's fifth-best mark earned in 36 NCAA Regional appearances … Tun capped her career with three consecutive all-around scores of 39.0 or better, while Kaufman earned six 39.0+ marks in 14 all-around appearances this season … junior Chloe Cluchey scored a season-best 9.825 on uneven bars … sophomore McKenna Linnen made her career debut on vault.

This Week in Track & Field: The Mountaineers travel to the Bison Outdoor Classic, from April 13-14, in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania … the two-day meet hosted by Bucknell is set to begin on Saturday at 1 p.m., with Sunday's events scheduled to commence at 9:30 a.m.

Last Week in Track & Field: WVU earned eight top-three finishes, including four wins, at a four-team meet at Virginia on April 6 … competing against Maryland, Pitt and the host Cavaliers, redshirt freshman Hayley Jackson won a pair of events, while redshirt senior Madelin Gardner and redshirt freshman Katherine Dowie also registered victories … Jackson won the 3,000 meters with a time of 9:45.37, before taking the 800 meters in 2:10.68 … Gardner won the pole vault, jumping an outdoor season-best mark of 4.30 meters (14 feet, 1.25 inches), while Dowie finished first in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 6:54.92 … WVU also tallied four second-place finishes, courtesy of redshirt juniors Candace Jones (1,500 meters) and Faith Penny (high jump), redshirt sophomore Antigone Archer (3,000 meters), freshman Mikenna Vanderheyden (steeplechase).

Notes: Last weekend marked the first of two trips to Virginia for the Mountaineers this season … WVU returns to Charlottesville for the Virginia Challenge, from April 19-20 … West Virginia has now competed at Virginia's Lannigan Field eight times since 2014 … WVU is set to compete at the Bison Outdoor Classic for the fourth consecutive season … the Mountaineers earned six top-10 finishes at last year's meet, including a victory in the 4x800-meter relay … Gardner enters the week tied for No. 9 nationally in the pole vault with a top mark of 4.30 meters (14 feet, 1.25 inches) … redshirt senior Shamoya McNeil ranks No. 35 nationally in the triple jump with a mark of 12.74 meters (41 feet, 9.75 inches) … Jackson is featured in the top 50 on the national performance list in two events: 5,000 meters (36th – 16:20.50) and 1,500 meters (49th – 4:23.15).

This Week in Rowing: Following a week off, West Virginia travels to Fairfax Station, Virginia, on Sunday, April 14, to compete at the George Mason Invite ... this marks the third consecutive season that WVU has competed at the event.

Last Week in Rowing: The Mountaineers were off last week.

Notes: At the George Mason Invite, WVU will compete alongside other Big 12 teams for a chance to claim a conference victory for the third consecutive year ... at last year's George Mason Invite, West Virginia raced its way to two event final wins ... WVU helped the Big 12 Conference claim 41 points to defeat the Colonial Athletic Association (36 points) and the Atlantic 10 Conference (31 points).

This Week in Tennis: West Virginia (10-9, 0-7 Big 12) returns to Morgantown to conclude the regular season ... WVU is set to host Baylor on Friday, April 12, and No. 7 Texas on Sunday, April 14 ... Friday's contest against the Lady Bears is set to begin at 5 p.m. ET, while Sunday's first serve against the Longhorns is scheduled for 11 a.m. ... Sunday's match is Senior Day and will mark the final home contest for seniors Paula Goetz, Abigail Rosiello and Kirsten White.

Last Week in Tennis: The Mountaineers suffered a pair of setbacks in their final roadtrip of the regular season ... WVU fell to Kansas State, 7-0, and No. 14 Kansas, 6-1, on Saturday and Sunday, respectively ... freshman Nicole Roc collected West Virginia's lone win against the Jayhawks.

Notes: West Virginia owns a 121-116 record against 2019 opponents ... in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA)/Oracle team rankings, the Longhorns rank No. 7 nationally ... sophomore Anne-Sophie Courteau leads the team in singles wins (11) and total wins (20) ... Courteau and Rosiello are tied for the team lead with nine doubles victories.

This Week in Golf: West Virginia wraps up the regular season with a trip to rival Penn State … the Mountaineers will compete in the Rutherford Intercollegiate for the fourth straight season on Saturday and Sunday … led by a runner-up finish from Max Sear, WVU claimed second at last season's tournament … the Mountaineers are joined by host Penn State, UConn, Cornell, Dayton, Eastern Michigan, Loyola (Md.), Minnesota, Oakland, Rutgers, Seton Hall and William & Mary in this year's event.

Last Week in Golf: WVU returned to the Irish Creek Collegiate at The Club at Irish Creek in Kannapolis, North Carolina, and took sixth overall … the Mountaineers shot 282-286-281=849 for three-under par … UNCG took home the team title at 18-under par (834), while Ohio State was the runner-up at 10 under (842) … Big 12 foe Kansas came in third at nine under (843) … sophomore Matthew Sharpstene tied for seventh place with a 54-hole total of 209 for four-under par … juniors Etienne Papineau and Philipp Matlari posted matching scores of 71-72-71=214 ... the duo tied for 28th place at one-over par.

Notes: Sharpstene tied for seventh place, marking his third straight top-15 finish this season … it also was his third top-10 finish of the year … WVU was second in par-3 scoring and third in par-5 scoring at the Irish Creek Collegiate … Matlari was one of 12 players to record an eagle in the tournament … Sharpstene leads the team with a 70.75 stroke average for -0.50 vs. par … Sear is second with a scoring average of 71.04 for -0.21 vs. par … six of eight players have a stroke average of 74.00 or better.