On Manoah’s journey to stardom, Morgantown remains memorable stop

Alek Manoah is from Homestead, Fla., a place he references proudly — and frequently — in any discussion of his path to becoming one of baseball’s top starting pitchers.

Homestead is where he saw the work ethic and sacrifices of his mother, Susana Lluch; where he played ball with his older brother, Erik, now a minor league pitcher; and where Alek built the bravado America witnessed during his on-the-mound narration of a three-punchout inning at the All-Star Game.

Manoah has a third home, too, literally and figuratively between South Florida and Toronto. Before he became the Blue Jays ascendant ace, Manoah had to mature into a leader capable of shouldering such responsibility.

He did that in West Virginia.

This weekend, Manoah will be as close to Morgantown, W.Va., as the Major League Baseball schedule permits. Manoah and the Blue Jays are in Pittsburgh to face the Pirates, including the season finale of MLB Sunday Leadoff on Peacock at 12pm ET.

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Manoah takes the mound in Friday’s series opener at PNC Park, in a perfect week for Mountaineers fans to make the 75-mile trek: One night before Manoah’s start, the West Virginia football team visits archrival Pittsburgh in the first Backyard Brawl in over a decade. The convergence provides a perfect occasion to explain Manoah’s significance to West Virginia athletics — and vice versa.

“He’s the turning point in the history of our program,” said Randy Mazey, the WVU head baseball coach since 2013. “When he’s pitching, there’s rarely a game that goes by when an announcer doesn’t say he pitched at West Virginia. We hosted an NCAA regional because of him and his teammates. He changed the face