As Western prepared for its home opener tomorrow with Kentucky State, head coach Jack Harbaugh announced some surprising news to the team following its walk-through this afternoon.

Harbaugh told his team that redshirt freshman quarterback Antone Towns has decided to leave the team so he can spend more time with the baseball team.

Harbaugh said he has yet to speak with Towns about his decision but heard about it through Towns’ father.

“He never really came to me,” Harbaugh said. “I talked to his dad about two weeks ago and I guess (Antone) wasn’t very happy. I thought we had some things resolved and talked to his dad again last night. He said he had decided to give up football to play baseball.”

After splitting practice time between baseball and football in the spring,

Towns was listed at No. 2 on the depth chart when the season started last week.

Harbaugh said during two-a-days that if Towns had spent more time with

football, he could be farther ahead than junior transfer Perez Smith. As

recently as the last preseason scrimmage, Harbaugh said Towns and Smith were tied on the chart.

The coach said he was most upset that he wasn’t able to discuss the situation with his young quarterback.

“The disappointing thing is I haven’t talked to Antone about it,” he said.

“I’m disappointed he wouldn’t come and talk with us and I don’t think that’s right, I think he should have taken it upon himself to come and visit and talk and share his thoughts with us.”

What perhaps made the decision easier on Towns was that while the Western baseball team was making a run towards the conference championship, he became one of the Toppers’ best hitters. A Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American, Towns played in 49 games while batting .338 with 27 runs scored, 13 extra base hits and 27 RBI.

Repeated attempts to contact Towns Friday were unsuccessful.