ATHENS, W.Va. – The 2021 sports calendar at Concord included the return of sports, the honoring of double-digit All-Americans, conference championships and several broken records.
From December 22 through New Year's Eve, the Concord University Sports Information Department will look back on the top 10 moments and storylines from the past 365 days.
The Concord baseball team made an improbable run to an appearance in the Mountain East Conference Championship Game in the spring. And that makes up moment number four in the countdown.
CU battled obstacles throughout the 2021 regular season, but qualified for the MEC Tournament with a record of 15-21. Needing a win in the season's final game, the Mountain Lions got a walk-off win over Glenville State to make the conference postseason for a 23
rd consecutive year.
Concord carried the momentum from the final regular season into the MEC Tournament where it convincingly defeated Wheeling, 15-1, in the opening game.
Trent Abernathy tossed a complete game on the mound as he struck out nine and scattered five hits.
Richard Ortiz and
Zack Saryeldin paced the offense with five combined hits and RBI.
Abernathy's pitching performance was backed up by
Andrew Neff in the second game of the conference tournament against nationally-ranked Charleston. Neff tied his career with nine strikeouts over 7.2 innings. A five-run fifth inning propelled the Mountain Lions over Charleston, 7-2.
Anthony Stehlin had two hits and two RBI.
Now playing for a spot in the MEC Championship Game, CU erased a 4-1 deficit against Alderson-Broaddus with a bases-clearing triple by
Evan Antonellis in the fifth inning. Concord scored two more runs in the sixth and seventh innings before holding off an AB rally to win 8-6.
Chance Davis came up with two hits and two RBI in his first start of the MEC Tournament while Antonellis had three RBI with his clutch hit.
Eddie Blake struck out six in 6.1 innings on the mound.
CU's first appearance in the conference tournament title game since 2013 came up just short as West Virginia State came through the loser's bracket to win the MEC Championship.
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