Sometimes, there simply is no justice.

COVID-19 has provided plenty of examples of that in the sports world. Add Chase Rowe to its seemingly never-ending list of victims.

The Knoch High School and Slippery Rock University graduate won over 300 games in 11 seasons as head baseball coach at La Roche University. He won eight conference championships, seven AMCC tournament titles and was the league’s Coach of the Year seven times.

Rowe took over as head coach there at age 23, becoming one of the youngest head coaches in all of college baseball at the time.

He could have stayed there for the rest of his career, had he chosen that route. His teams kept getting better year after year.

But Rowe’s lifelong goal was professional baseball. When he fell short of that goal as a player — though he was a standout infielder at SRU — he hoped to get there as a coach.

That happened this past winter when Rowe accepted the hitting coach position with the Connecticut Tigers, the short-season Class A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.

He got to experience a few weeks at the Tigers’ spring training base in Lakeland, Fla. He was looking to have his son — an avid baseball fan — join him in Norwich, Conn., and experience following his dad’s minor league team.

Such bonding time would have been special.

Enter COVID-19. Exit that dream.

With no minor league baseball taking place this season, Rowe recently resigned his position in the Tigers’ system, opting to focus on spending more quality time as a father and a husband. He wants to support community baseball as well.

As owner of the Pittsburgh Spikes — a developmental youth baseball program — he is already doing so.

Of course, with the collegiate won-loss record Rowe has already compiled, his coaching career is likely far from over. The man hasn’t even turned 40 yet.

His baseball mind is as good as it gets, especially when it comes to hitting.

Rowe won 135 more games than he lost at La Roche. He brought kids into the program and elevated their game, turning the Redhawks into a regional Division III power.

He could return to the Division III level, maybe even go higher. But Rowe is a family man and that may dictate what he winds up doing.

Bottom line, Chase Rowe is a high-quality baseball guy.

COVID-19 may have taken one particular opportunity away.

In terms of his career, it merely delayed it.

This man will experience success as a baseball coach again.

Count on it.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle