UTB-TSC to shut down baseball program

The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College baseball team is the first clear casualty of the split between the two schools, officials confirmed late Monday.

University of Texas at Brownsville President Juliet V. Garcia confirmed late Monday that this will be the baseball team’s last season. As the end of the educational partnership between UTB and Texas Southmost College progresses, Garcia said the student body will be split in half. Thus there will be half the amount of athletic fees supporting the programs UTB plans to keep.

In October, a task force that included members of the community, faculty, students, administration, the university’s athletic director and a coach was formed to decide how to deal with the impact of a reduction in athletic fees, she said.

"The result is you have half as many dollars to spend on athletics," she said. "That was the task given to this group. ... They had an awful lot of thinking to do about it."

Garcia said last year that same task force discussed moving from the NAIA to the NCAA, but the split ended that.

In order to comply with the NAIA requirement of having six sports teams, baseball will be replaced with a cross country program to build on local high school success, she said.

Sharyland coach Barton Bickerton, who has two sons on the baseball team, tweeted information about the end of the program Monday night. When reached for comment he confirmed the news, saying that UTB-TSC baseball coach Bryan Aughney told his team what was happening in a meeting Monday.

Garcia said the information was leaked and its timing was "unfortunate" because the university hoped to tell students when they returned from winter break; first starting with the baseball team, then the university community and next the public.

"This is not the way it was supposed to have come out, obviously," she said. "That’s OK, the message is the same as it would have been."

Aughney, when reached for comment earlier Monday night, declined to speak on the record. Scorpions Director of Athletics Todd Lowery, who recently coached the volleyball team to the NAIA national championship, could not be reached for comment.

Garcia said the university’s athletics task force made its recommendation, in part, because baseball is a program with a large team and the highest costs, which include travel, scholarships, facilities and equipment.

She said there wasn’t enough time to notify students earlier, but that the university wanted to tell them after winter break so they might use the spring season to be recruited elsewhere. The same is true for coaches, she said.

"We wanted to make sure they had as much heads up as possible," she said. "It’s a very difficult decision. No one wants to make a decision like this."

However, the president said there was hope in the announcement in that it signals UTB aims to have a competitive athletics program during its new future as an autonomous institution. She said it is possible baseball could be added again in the future.

Garcia and university spokeswoman Letty Fernandez said UTB would make a further statement Tuesday.

Earlier this year via the university’s website dedicated to the partnership transition, athletics was discussed in response to several questions from the public.

"The athletic teams decisions are due within the next three months," the university wrote in September, while also stating it will have "league sports" and noting TSC had yet to make a plan of its own.

The Scorpions currently play in six sports in the Red River Athletic Conference.

As for this season’s baseball team, it will still play its schedule and will still be coached by Aughney. The season begins Jan. 20 with an exhibition against UTB-TSC alumni.

Last year the Scorpions went 35-26 and 19-11 in conference. They lost to Doane College and Fresno Pacific University in the opening round of the NAIA national championships. It was their second straight trip to the postseason.

The split between UTB and TSC has been in the works for more than one year.