Winston-Salem State University to drop baseball program:Will finish out this season and then shut it down

from John Dell with the Winston-Salem Journal and you can read this entire article/post at CLICK HERE for the WS Journal on-line and the direct link, to this post…
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Winston-Salem State, in an effort to increase scholarship dollars for its revenue sports, has decided to drop its baseball program.

The school made the announcement Friday afternoon.

Coach Kevin Ritsche, who has run the program for the past nine seasons, learned of the decision in an afternoon meeting with interim athletics director George Knox. In a later meeting with about half of the players present because of spring break, Knox told them about disbanding the program after this season.

Knox said a big reason for dropping baseball is the CIAA no longer sponsoring the sport.

“This was a university decision,” Knox said. “This was a tough decision to make when you have to tell student-athletes their fate.”

Knox said the budget for the baseball team is about $350,000 and that would be used to help other sports.

Knox said all of the players on scholarships will keep them until they graduate from WSSU.

“If a freshman is on scholarship and he decides to stay the next three years and graduate, he’ll keep that scholarship,” he said.

The baseball program, which is in its second season as an independent, is 14-7 so far this season. The team will play the rest of the season and will try to receive an at-large bid for the Division-II regional playoffs.