Springfield native Greg Beals coaches Ohio State to Big Ten title

Springfield native and Kenton Ridge High School graduate Greg Beals won his first Big Ten baseball championship as head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes on Sunday.

Ohio State beat Iowa 8-7 in the Big Ten tournament final in Omaha, Neb. An RBI double by Troy Kuhn in the top of the ninth broke a 7-7 tie.

It's Ohio State's first tournament title since 2009. Beals was hired in June 2010 after eight years at Ball State. This is his sixth season. He graduated from Kenton Ridge in 1988. He played for longtime KR coach Tom Randall.

The Buckeyes won eight of their last nine regular-season games and beat six top-25 teams in that span. In the double-elimination tournament, they beat Michigan 8-3 on Thursday, lost to Iowa 5-4 on Friday, beat Michigan 11-4 and Michigan State 3-2 in 10 innings on Saturday and beat the Spartans again, 10-9 on Sunday morning, to reach the final.

The Buckeyes will play in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2009. The NCAA bracket will be announced Monday morning.

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