Ohio State head coach Greg Beals walks with his team during the Ohio State-Indiana game on April 3. Ohio State won 6-0. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
Head coach Greg Beals sat down on the team bus Tuesday ready to embark on the 3 1/2-hour ride from West Lafayette, Indiana back to Columbus.
The week of improvising was behind him, as he was heading home to a normal routine with one more win than when he left the Buckeye State.
After last weekend’s series cancellation against Minnesota, Beals pulled as many strings as possible to get his team an opponent to avoid the loss of three games in the 44-game, Big Ten-only season. He managed to pull it off with success on short preparation despite the last week being in a work-as-we-go approach.
“I’d say it was shocking to not play on the weekend, but, you know, we knew that it was definitely a possibility,” junior right-handed pitcher Garrett Burhenn said. “We thought we could maybe get away with a full season here, but try to make up as many games as possible.”
The chaos began the night of May 5 when Beals said he found out his team couldn’t face Minnesota.
He said he spent the next day scrambling to try and find a solution, wanting to get in a three-game weekend series if possible, but found no such luck.
“We were working hard on Thursday to find a way to play and get a weekend series in, so I told the guys, ‘we’re going to take Thursday off,’ once it came down to that we weren’t going to get anything,” Beals said. “There was disappointment, wasn’t going to try to get a practice out of them.”
The Springfield, Ohio, native still was not going to give up, though.
On Thursday, Beals brought together a group of players who collectively decided to play a two-game Scarlet and Gray scrimmage series Friday and Saturday with co-captain left-handers redshirt junior Seth Lonsway and senior Griffan Smith as the heads of each team.
Purdue announced May 5 that its weekend series with Northwestern was postponed due to COVID-19 issues within the Wildcats’ program, prompting Boilermakers’ head coach Greg Goff and Beals to get in touch with one another.
Beals said Big Ten bylaws for the COVID-19-stricken season state that teams can make up games with one another, as long as the game would not force a team to exceed the maximum of 44 games in a season. He wanted to hold an entire three-game weekend series, but the two teams agreed to Tuesday’s game.
“We were a noon stretch on Friday with a 1:25 first pitch for Scarlet and Gray game 1,” Beals said. “And about 11:30 on Friday morning, coach Goff and I got together and scheduled this game.”
The two intrasquad scrimmages came and went, and Lonsway’s unit defeated Smith’s. Beals liked the competitiveness he saw from the bunch and, with the schedule throughout the week in mind, gave the team an off-day Sunday.
Beal’s daughter was a 2021 graduate of Ohio State, so he spent Sunday attending her commencement ceremony.
“Doing what I do for a living, I miss a lot, unfortunately, so to be able to get a bonus there. My kids all know what I do for a living, they love what I do for a living and they expect me to do that,” Beals said. “My youngest daughter had her Senior Day on Thursday for her softball team, and I was able to go Thursday for her Senior Day and walk with her on the field. Then, I was able to go to commencement on Sunday.”
Ohio State’s 11-year veteran head coach said the team traveled to West Lafayette Monday, had a practice, then played its first midweek game of the season Tuesday, heading home with a 5-1 victory.
As chaotic as the previous seven days may have been for Beals and his team, he said they’re on a quick turnaround to get ready for the Friday-through-Sunday series in Columbus against Michigan State.
“We’ll get a little work and a weight room workout [Wednesday], a pre-series workout on Thursday and be ready for Sparty when they show up Friday,” Beals said.
