GRANVILLE — West Virginia got the best of Marshall in the first of three baseball games scheduled between the two this season on Tuesday, 7-0 …

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WV News) — The year 2021 will not go down as a great year in the annals of West Virginia athletics due to the fact that neither the football nor the men’s basketball teams — the flag bearers for any school in athletics — made strong impacts either in the Big 12 or nationally.

But that does not mean that it was a sour year for the school’s athletic department, as the non-revenue sports made huge strides forward both within their conferences and on the national scene.

Over the next two day we will look at the Top 10 stories of the year and the Top 10 performances.

First, the year’s top performances.

No. 10 — Making their mark in Major League Baseball

Over the past few years, since Randy Mazey came on the scene, WVU has been seeing its players drafted on a regular basis and more and more making their way to the major leagues.

But this season two of them made national splashes.

First it was Baltimore Orioles pitcher John Means, who on May 5 went out and threw a 6-0 no-hitter at Seattle, missing a perfect game only by throwing a wild pitch on the third strike of a strikeout. That runner reached base but was quickly erased as he tried to steal second. Means faced the minimum of 27 batters in throwing the first Orioles no-hitter since 1976, which had been the longest streak in Major League Baseball.

No. 9 — Alek Manoah stuns Yankees in debut, never lets up

While he couldn’t match that individual effort, former Mountaineer pitcher Alek Manoah brought his 6-foot-6 frame and 98 mile per hour fastball onto the mound for his major league debut for Toronto on May 26. Pitching in no less a cathedral than Yankee Stadium, Manoah earned the 2-0 victory by pitching six innings, allowed two hits while striking out six and walking two.

He never let up from there, finishing his rookie season on Oct. 2 by outdueling Means in a historic game for WVU, the first time two of its pitchers had ever started against each other. Manoah compiled an 0-2 record with a 3:22 ERA while striking out 127 batters in 111.2 innings.

No. 8 — Bringing home the Black Diamond Trophy

Milan Puskar Stadium was filled to capacity on Sept. 18 when No. 15 Virginia Tech came to town for the first time in 16 years to renew the Battle for the Black Diamond Trophy. The Hokies had won 7 of the last 9 meetings between the two border rivals but a fast start and a goal line stand sent the trophy back to Morgantown, WVU holding on for a 27-24 victory.

Leddie Brown stunned Virginia Tech with an 80-yard touchdown run and the defense spent all day in the Hokies’ backfield, making 13 tackles for a loss to go along with six sacks.

Tech threatened to steal the game away on its last possession, getting to the WVU 3-yard line with a minute left and first and goal. With the outcome on the line, Tech ran twice and lost a year, then tried a pass that went incomplete, bringing up fourth down. Quarterback Braxton Burmeister tried one final pass but Jackie Matthews broke it up to save the day.

No. 7 — KK Dean’s late heroics save WVU women

WVU’s women’s basketball team was looking defeat in the face in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament on March 12, trailing Kansas State by seven points with a minute to go.

But Kirsten Dean came to the rescue, scoring seven points in the final seconds to lift the Mountaineers to a 58-56 victory. The comeback started with a 3-pointer from Kyrse Gondrezick, who finished with 26 points and Dean finished it off by stealing the ball and driving the length of the court under pressure, scoring the winning shot just before the buzzer went off.

The Mountaineers would make the Big 12 Tournament final but lost to No. 1 Baylor.

No. 6 — WVU keeps its bowl hopes alive

The Mountaineers escaped with a 31-28 victory over Texas as quarterback Jarret Doege threw three touchdown passes and Leddie Brown rushed for 155 yards in his final home game. Doege ate Texas alive on third down, completing 8 of 13 for 132 yards and a 20-yard touchdown pass to Sam James on third down.

No. 5 — Ford-Wheaton’s catch of the year stuns Iowa State

The West Virginia football reached the midpoint in its season and its bye week with 2-4 record but vowed to make a run a bowl. It sounded like just talk until Oct. 30 when No 22 Iowa State came to town. The Cyclones had won the last three games against West Virginia decisively, a year ago embarrassing the Mountaineers, 42-6.

WVU vowed revenge and came out roaring. Doege threw for 370 yards, including a touchdown pass to Bryce Ford-Wheaton, who made the catch of the season in the back of the end zone, and Leddie Brown rushed for 197 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-31 victory.

That not only got WVU back to 4-4 and gave them a second victory over a ranked team, but it certainly cleared the way for them to become bowl eligible with a final 6-6 regular-season record.

No. 4 — WVU golfer ‘Goetz’ the medal

There was a time when a West Virginian dominated the U.S. Amateur Golf Championships. That was when William C. Campbell Jr. of Huntington beat Ed Tutwiler 1-up in the 1964 match play Tournament, a nice trophy to go with his 12 West Virginia Amateur titles.

But this year a WVU fifth-year senior, Mark Goetz, brought WVU back into national prominence at the event as he shot 8-under through 36-and holes to capture the medalist honors and the No. 1 spot for the match. It would be the crowning achievement of a great year of golf for the collegiate golfer.

Unfortunately, his bubble was burst the next day when he built a huge lead before losing to the No. 64 seed in the first round of the 121st U.S. Amateur at Oakmont in Pennsylvania.

No. 3 — Winning Olympic Gold

After having to settle for the Bronze medal in consecutive Olympics, the Canadian women’s team finally won the Gold in the Tokyo Olympics on Aug. 8 with former WVU stars Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence starting.

The finals went down to a tense shootout in which there were misses and great saves before Canada’s Julia Grosso managed to slip the final penalty kick of the shootout past goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl of Sweden, who got a glove on the low drive but could not stop it.

To reach the final the two former Mountaineers helped upset the United States twice along the way.

No. 2 — Ceili McCabe wins a Big 12 title, finishes 3rd in NCAA

Redshirt freshman Ceili McCabe, a Canadian, established herself as one of the premier distance runners on the collegiate level as shattered long-standing school records while winning a Big 12 Championship in Cross Country and the 3000-meter Steeplechase and finishing third in the NCAA Cross Country Championships sixth in the NCAA 3000 Steeplechase.

The finish in the 6km Big 12 championship was a thrilling duel as she won by less than a second in 20:44.2 to beat Iowa State’s Cailie Logue, who was looking for her fourth straight title.

In finishing third in the NCAA Cross Country meet she ran even faster, completing the course in 19:25 to finish just two-tenths of a second behind Alabama’s Mercy Chleangat for second. Brigham Young’s Whittni Orton won the race in 19:25.4.

No. 1 — Deuce McBride does in Kansas what has not been seen since Jerry West

Deuce McBride announced his arrival as a special on Feb. 6 when No. 23 Kansas cme into the Coliseum to face a WVU team that had lost by 14 points to Kansas earlier in the season. McBride had scored 19 points in that game but obviously had a whole lot more saved up for the Jayhawks at home.

McBride put together one of the greatest games in Mountaineer history, scoring 31 points with seven rebounds, seven assists and three steals in a 91-76 victory. McBride hit four of five 3s and all nine of his free throw attempts as he became the first WVU player to have 3 points, seven rebounds and seven assists since Jerry West did so in 1960 ... 61 years earlier.