BURLINGTON, Vt. — Citing what its president called "inescapable financial realities," the University of Vermont pulled the plug Friday on its men's baseball and women's softball teams.

The elimination of the two teams will save $836,000, and the athletic department layoffs will save $247,000, according to the university.

The athletic department cuts spell the end for a Catamounts baseball program that has fielded a team continuously since 1888, except for six years in the early 1970s. The softball program began in 1974.

Students on scholarship will be able to continue to attend UVM tuition-free if they decide to stay.

Athletic director Robert Corran said he told coaches and players on Friday morning.

"As much as we may not understand it, we all have to deal with it," Corran said.

The university, which has about 9,500 undergraduate students and an annual budget of about $284 million, has had its state appropriations slashed twice in the last six months.

In a demonstration over the cuts Friday, students carried hand-lettered signs and a paper-mache effigy of University President Daniel Fogel, marching across the college green and into Waterman Hall administration building.