Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1254482
VARSITY VIEWS P enn State's athletic year ended quietly on a late Thursday a/er- noon in Oxford, Ohio. The Nit- tany Lion baseball team had been trailing by four runs going into the ninth inning of its series opener against Miami (Ohio) on March 12. When Mason Nadeau slapped a grounder to -rst base, Redhawks in-elder Charlie Harrigan scooped it up and stepped on the bag, ending the inning and saddling the Lions with a 5-1 loss. Coach Rob Cooper had known when his team headed to western Ohio that its remaining games were in jeop- ardy. A wave of cancellations was erasing the sports calendar bit by bit, and a/er a while it became clear that the collegiate baseball season wasn't going to be spared. Cooper knew that the series opener against the Redhawks was going to be played, but 20 minutes before the -rst pitch, he got the of- -cial word: The rest of the season was suspended inde-nitely. His team would be the last Penn State squad to see action during the 2019-20 school year. Cooper decided not to tell his players beforehand. He wanted them to enjoy their last game, and he trusted that they wouldn't overhear the news from some- one in the crowd. A/er Nadeau grounded out to end the game, the seventh-year coach gathered his team and explained that their season was likely over. Said Cooper, "I basically told them, 'Hey look, here's the deal. This is not a fun thing for me to have to tell you guys, but as of right now, it's looking like the season is going to be canceled, and I don't have any more information other than what I'm telling you. I know it hurts.' "One thing that our players and I and our coaching sta. de-nitely agree with is that what's going on in the world right now is a lot bigger than all of us, and peo- ple wouldn't be taking these drastic measures if they didn't think it was going to help on a larger scale. As much as it was hard to say goodbye to that group of play- ers and have so many questions that I couldn't answer, all of us supported the fact that we were doing it and the reason why we were doing it. It doesn't make it any easier, but our guys understood why." That feeling was widespread among Penn State's spring sports teams, all of which had their seasons shut down in early March. In addition to the baseball team, the so/ball, lacrosse, golf, tennis and men's volleyball teams were in the midst of their regular seasons, while a number of winter sports squads were ei- ther getting ready for their respective conference and NCAA tournaments or had already begun postseason competi- tion. Four members of the track and -eld team, for example, had just arrived at in- door nationals in Albuquerque, N.M., when the news broke. That competition was canceled, and so was the outdoor track season that was set to follow. The men's volleyball team was even far- ther from home, having made a spring break trip to Southern California for a LOOKING AHEAD Following a premature end to their seasons, spring sports teams plan for the future | MOVING FORWARD Cooper's Nittany Lion baseball team was 10-5 when the season ended following a road loss at Miami (Ohio). Photo by Mark Selders/Penn State Athletics