MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Those Who Enjoyed Watching Short Noah pitching at Hurricane High were very surprised when they saw him pitching again when he finally ended up at the University of West Virginia.

For those who don’t know, Noah no longer throws over but rather to the side like Kent Tekulve once did. But more on that in a moment.

Noah’s college career started at Morehead State, although he wanted it to be at WVU.

“I was a kid from West Virginia and always wanted to play in West Virginia, but at the time the cards didn’t line up for me to play here in terms of talent, so I had to accept the offers I had and ended up going to Morehead State,” he said.

“I arrived on campus and adjusted to college life and classes, but found that wasn’t really the right fit for me. At that point, I wanted to take a different path. “, he added.

So Noah called the West Virginia University assistant baseball coach. Steve Sabin to see if the climbers had places available on their list.

Unfortunately, at the time, they did not.

“I spoke to Coach Sabe, and he was like, ‘We’ll invite you for a tryout in the fall, and you’ll see what it’s all about.’ I came for the one day tryout, I faced three or four hitters and I did pretty well and after that they said, ‘We’ll contact you’ At that point, everything was in air and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to continue playing baseball here or if I had to leave,” Short recalled.

“At that time I had average stuff from a normal arm lunge, then this fall I trained and went through a pretty big change. I developed a lot, then in the fall , in exit meetings, they said I had to improve for the first two intra-squads this spring or I wasn’t going to be able to play because they had to make room on the roster,” said he declared.

He made an appearance against Coastal Carolina, and after returning home he received a text message from the coach Randy Mazey wanting him to come to the office to see him and his assistants.

“I’m like, ‘Oh, what’s this going to be about?’ At this point, I walked in to talk, and they were like, ‘How about dropping your arm slot?’ At first I was like, ‘What does that mean?’ Handgun, submarine, and I never really thought about it before,” he said.

“I had some concerns about it and how it would turn out, and I immediately went out and started throwing a handgun, and I think I had one or two appearances before COVID -19 doesn’t hit. It was definitely a mechanical change. It was a change from commanding fastballs to throwing different sliders from that slot because it’s totally different.”

The 6-foot-1, 190-pound right-hander has made 25 appearances out of the bullpen in 2021, striking out an impressive 38 batters in 28 2/3 innings of work. This year, his 23 appearances are at a by Chase Smith led the team 24, while the junior compiled a 3.68 ERA and some saves in a career-high 29 1/3 innings pitched.

He whipped up a season-high six in a win earlier this year over Baylor and his 71 strikeouts in 58 innings demonstrate the outstanding success he’s had since making the switch.

“I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot of things that I wanted to accomplish,” he said. “Obviously I always want to be better than I am – that’s always a goal – but coming from Morehead and not knowing if I would play baseball again, it was definitely a bet on myself.

“It was definitely a terrifying experience, because a lot of people told me I shouldn’t do it. ‘What if you can’t play baseball anymore?’ It raises concerns in your head, but at that time I just had to bet on myself and make the decision that felt best for me at that time,” he admitted.

Short says hard work and betting on yourself are part of his family’s value system.

“Watching my grandparents and my father work hard all their lives and work for what they definitely taught me is that you have to work for what you want and put in the time and effort for it. “, did he declare. “It made it clear to me that I have to do it, whether I’m in a small school or a big one. Whatever you do in life, you always have to work hard.”

This week’s Mountaineer’s Life was produced by Devin Kane and is presented by WVU Medicine.