Athletes

The senior midfielder led the Knights to wins over then-No. 3 Notre Dame Prep and then-No. 4 South River Saturday with seven goals and four assists. Bordner scored three goals on three shots and had two assists and two ground balls in a 12-9 win over NDP, and had four goals on five shots as well as two assists, four draw controls and two ground balls in the 18-7 win over South River to help boost the defending state Class 3A-2A champion Knights (3-1) from No. 10 to No. 4 in this week's Baltimore Sun Top 15. Bordner, who was also on Century's volleyball and indoor track teams, plays for the M&D Lacrosse club.

For the past two seasons, the five-time defending state champion Hereford Bulls have used an effective one-two punch in the cage with senior Conor Cunningham playing the first half and junior Brock Turnbaugh coming in for the second. Last Wednesday against then-No. 2 Gilman, the Bulls' coaching staff played a hunch and kept Cunningham in for the entire game. It proved a worthwhile decision. Cunningham was brilliant throughout, finishing with 17 saves to carry the then-No. 8 Bulls (now No. 5)

Towson University President Maravene S. Loeschke's decision to discontinue the men's soccer and baseball programs and add men's tennis blew my athletic socks off and bruised my heart and soul ("Towson criticized for cutting sports teams," March 21). As a graduate of what was then known as Towson State Teacher College (Class of 1942), my experiences as a student athlete there had a big effect on my later life. From athletic director Donald I. Minnegan, for example, I learned to eradicate the word "no" from my vocabulary.

Louis Mortimer Sleater, a standout high school athlete who ended his seven-year major league pitching career with the Baltimore Orioles and was later a steel salesman, died of lung disease Monday at his Timonium home. He was 86. A left-handed knuckleballer, he played for the St. Louis Browns, Washington Senators, Kansas City Athletics, Milwaukee Braves and Detroit Tigers before joining the Orioles in 1958. "He was the epitome of the journeyman left-hand pitcher in the 1950s," said Phil Wood, an MASN broadcaster who lives in Glyndon.

As a graduate of Towson University, I have been ashamed of my alma mater just three times in the past 47 years. The first time was during the 10-month tenure of a previous president who squandered both funds and public trust by running up huge bills on his lavish home. The second was when Towson's Minnegan Stadium was renamed to "raise funds" in 2002, dishonoring my beloved coach and lowering my respect for the university. The third occurred on March 8, when Towson President Maravene Loeschke announced the school was cutting baseball and men's soccer from its athletic program ("Ire grows after Towson president cuts teams," March 24)

The freshman right-hander threw a no-hitter against then-No. 7 Reservoir in only her second varsity start and did not allow an earned run in nine innings pitched last week. In the No. 13 Falcons' 6-0 win over Reservoir on Saturday in the District V Showcase at Bachman Sports Complex, Simonds struck out eight batters and walked three. Earlier in the week, she pitched the first two innings as the Falcons took a 17-0 lead en route to an 18-6 win over Southern in five innings. Simonds, who also plays first base, is hitting .250 with one RBI and a .571 on-base percentage.

A four-year starter and captain, the All-Metro catcher had a near-perfect week at the plate to lead the No. 1 Cardinals (5-1) to four wins. Murphy was productive in 15 of his 16 plate appearances during the four games, going 10-for-11 (.909) with four walks and a sacrifice fly. He had six extra-base hits - three doubles and three triples - and 13 RBIs. In Thursday's 15-5 win over Archbishop Spalding, Murphy was 3-for-3 with a single, double, triple and seven RBIs. Murphy, who has committed to Wake Forest, is batting .714 with a 1.357 slugging percentage so far this season.

As a Towson alum, I have followed very closely the announcement and the process that followed to discontinue the soccer and baseball teams. As vice chair of the Board of Visitors at Towson, I had an opportunity, along with my fellow board members, to participate in several lengthy discussions with Towson President Maravene Loeschke in an attempt to understand the rationale behind the decision and the different steps taken to ensure that it received close...

Brad Duvall Hereford Duvall guided the Bulls to the Class 3A state title for the second consecutive year, using a lot of talented athletes to give Hereford its scoring punch. This winter, the Bulls won their seventh straight Baltimore County title and third consecutive Class 3A Central regional meet before ending the season with the state championship. The Hereford girls had never won an indoor track state title before last year. "No coach can be successful without amazing athletes, and we are lucky to have supremely talented and hard-working kids that follow the long-term plans of the coaching staff," Duvall said.

Sportswriters inevitably get the question: How do you cover teams you once loved as a fan? The standard answer is that you stop rooting for the jersey and start rooting for the best story. That's true to a point but incomplete. It's near impossible to cover a team and not become fascinated with some of the individual personalities. You don't exactly root for them, but you are drawn to them. And that brings me to Ed Reed and his departure from Baltimore after 11 mesmerizing, mystical, confounding and deeply entertaining seasons.