BRIEFLY: Tide seventh at Morris Williams tourney

AUSTIN, Texas | The top-ranked University of Alabama golf team played its final round of the regular season Tuesday, finishing seventh at the Morris Williams Intercollegiate.

Texas, the tournament host, shot a 3-over par 287 Tuesday to jump from third to win the tournament at 16-over 868. Fifth-ranked Oklahoma State slipped from first to second at 874. UNLV was third with a 876, followed by Auburn 883, Texas Tech 885, Central Florida 885, Alabama 886, Louisville 887, Brigham Young 880, Pepperdine 898, TCU 904, Fresno State 910, Tulsa 915, San Diego 917 and New Mexico 920.

Alabama played the tournament without its leader, All-American Michael Thompson, who is in Augusta, Ga., this week competing in the Masters.

Joseph Sykora had Alabama's best finish in Texas, a 6-over par 219, to tie for 13th. Matthew Swan came in with a 220, Matt Hughes finished at 234, Mark Harrell had a 227 and Gator Todd was at 230.

Bobby Hudson of Texas won the individual title with a 208.From staff reports

LIVINGSTON | University of West Alabama pitcher Brandon Dill was named Gulf South Conference East Division Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday.

This marks the sixth time a UWA baseball player has received a weekly honor from the GSC and the third time Dill has received the honor.

Dill, a Columbus, Miss, native, helped the Tigers to a series sweep of West Florida over the weekend. The senior right-hander pitched eight innings in a 9-3 win over the Argos, tying his career high with nine strikeouts to pick up his sixth win of the season.

The sweep of West Florida improved West Alabama to 33-8 on the season and 8-4 in the GSC. The Tigers are tied for second in the East Division with Montevallo.

West Alabama returns to action next Monday, hosting Lambuth University at 6:30 p.m.

TUSCALOOSA | The Stillman College football team will host a barbecue on Thursday on the Stillman campus.

The event, intended to continue interaction between Stillman and the community, will run from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and is free to the public.

For more information, call at (205) 366-8980 or 247-8101

LIVINGSTON | The University of West Alabama women's tennis team clinched a spot in the Gulf South Conference Tournament with an 8-1 win over in-state rival Montevallo on Tuesday.

It marks the first time the UWA women have made the tournament.

In doubles, Mariana Freitas and Chenge Tsapayi beat Montevallo's Dorothy Sherman and Kelley Vaughn 8-1, and Rachel Hardaway and Amanda Morgan topped the Falcon's Terrylisa Abdool and Audrey Carrio 9-8.

In singles, Tsapayi blanked Sherman 6-0, 6-0, while Freitas turned back Kristi Kelly 7-5, 6-1.

Playing in her last home match at UWA, Hardaway clinched the match with a straight set, 6-3, 3-3 win over Vaughn. Nicole Shanahan, Brittany Williams and Amanda Morgan split the first two sets with their opponent but won the tie-breaker set in all three matches.

UWA returns to action Saturday, visiting Mississippi College in Clinton, Miss. The GSC Tournament is April 19-20 at Lagoon Park in Montgomery.

ATLANTA | Estella Aaron, the mother of baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron, has died. She was 96.

Susan Bailey, assistant to the former Atlanta Braves star, said Tuesday she died Monday in an Atlanta hospital after a short illness.

The funeral will be Saturday at Greater Morning Star Baptist Church in Mobile, the city where she lived most of her life.

Estella and Herbert Aaron had eight children, including Henry and Tommie, who also played for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves and died in 1984.

Henry Aaron broke Babe Ruth's career record of 714 home runs with his 715th on April 8, 1974 — 34 years ago Tuesday — at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. He retired with 755, a mark surpassed by Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants last August.

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. | Six-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams will be sidelined indefinitely, though she did not say why she will be out of action.

'I've just been having some issues that I need to resolve, so I'm working on that at the moment and I'm hoping to be back playing as soon as possible,' Williams said Tuesday at the Bausch & Lomb Championships. 'I'm not going to get any further into it, but of course I love the sport.'

Williams said last week she was dealing with a medical issue when she announced her withdrawal from the Bausch & Lomb tournament. She played last week in the Sony Ericsson Open, losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals.

Williams will not play for the United States in the Fed Cup semifinal against Russia on April 26-27, but did not rule out any other tournaments and said she still wants to play in the French Open beginning in late May.

'Of course I want to be there (in France),' Williams said. 'I don't want to be at home watching on TV. Watching this week will be enough on TV, so hopefully not too many more weeks.'

STARKVILLE, Miss. | Mississippi State basketball coach Rick Stansbury says Bulldog sophomore guard Ben Hansbrough has decided to transfer following the spring semester.

'Ben is a good kid and we wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors,' Stansbury said Monday in a statement issued by the school. Mississippi State said Hansbrough has not announced where he's tranferring to.

A 6-foot-3, 205-pound guard from Poplar Bluff, Mo., Hansbrough was State's fourth-leading scorer this past season at 10.5 points per game.

He started 28 games and tied for the team lead with 62 made three-point field goals in shooting 36 percent from beyond the three-point arc.

He led the Bulldogs in free throw percentage (.789) this past year. Hansbrough was the team's third-leading playmaker with 77 assists (2.6 apg) while also averaging 3.8 rebounds a game.

NEW YORK | Outfielder Jordan Schafer, the top prospect in the Atlanta Braves' farm system, was suspended for 50 games Thursday by the baseball commissioner's office, which said he used human growth hormone in violation of the sport's minor league drug program.

The 21-year-old outfielder, ranked as the No. 25 prospect overall this year by Baseball America, was batting .091 (1-for-11) for the Double-A Mississippi Braves of the Southern League. He batted .312 at Class A last year with 15 homers and 63 RBIs for Rome of the South Atlantic League and Myrtle Beach of the Carolina League.

Schafer became the fourth player suspended this year under the minor league program, following St. Louis pitcher Scott Vander Weg (positive test), Kansas City Royals pitcher Jacob Rodriguez (failure to test) and Chicago Cubs pitcher Robert Hernandez (positive test).

There were 30 suspensions last year under the minor league program and eight under the major league plan.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. | Stewart Cooper was hired as crew chief for Kyle Petty on Tuesday, taking over the slumping No. 45 Dodge after it missed the past two races.

Cooper replaces Billy Wilburn heading into this weekend's race at Phoenix. Petty is scheduled to return to the driver's seat after stepping out last week to allow Chad McCumbee the chance to qualify the car at Texas.

But McCumbee missed the race, just as Petty had done two weeks before in Martinsville, Va., leading the team to make the crew change.

Cooper was recruited to Petty Enterprises by vice president Robbie Loomis, who noticed Cooper's work during a stint in the Nationwide Series running a team for Braun Racing. Now he steps into a team that ranks 41st in points and must qualify on speed for Sunday's race at Phoenix.

'Stewart is that new breed of crew chief that couples a mechanical engineering education with a lot of practical at-track experience,' Petty said. 'I know Robbie has been trying to get him in the organization for some time. The 45 team is a talented race team, and we'll benefit from having a guy like Stewart at the helm.'

Wilburn will stay at Petty Enterprises as crew chief for a test team.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. | Ryan Newman became the latest driver penalized by NASCAR, losing 25 points Tuesday because his car failed inspection at Texas Motor Speedway.

Newman's No. 12 Dodge was too high when NASCAR inspected it following its fourth-place run, an adjustment that could provide additional downforce to his car.

'What happened last week was a mistake and we're moving on from it and looking forward to this week,' Newman said. 'We hate to lose points, but we have a good team and we will be able to make them up.'

The penalty dropped Newman from eighth to 10th in the Sprint Cup standings.

Also penalized were car owner Roger Penske, who was docked 25 points, and crew chief Roy McCauley, fined $25,000 and placed on probation until the end of the year.

There was no immediate word from Penske Racing South about appealing the penalty, but the team indicated it plans to move on.