CEDAR FALLS - Rick Heller has hardly slept the past two weeks.

"I'm probably as stressed out as I've ever been in my life," the University of Northern Iowa baseball coach said.

Besides the practices and long bus trips to Little Rock, Ark., and Shreveport, La., for weekend series recently, Heller has been working the phones trying to find a big donor to keep baseball alive at UNI. He's also exploring options for his players for next year.

The university announced last week that it will eliminate baseball as a varsity sport after this season unless the program can raise $1.2 million by April 5 to fund it for the next three years.

Heller has received hundreds of calls and e-mails from supporters outraged about the decision but also willing to help.

"I'm overwhelmed with people's kindness," he said.

A special Web site (www.SupportUNIBaseball.com) was created last week for people to pledge their support. As of Tuesday night, a little more than $176,000 (14.5 percent of the amount needed) has been pledged.

Perfect Game USA, a Cedar Rapids-based scouting service devoted to developing amateur baseball players, pledged $25,000. It also is exposing the country to this situation with an article on its Web site (www.perfectgame.org).

"Our goal right now is to do whatever we can to get the word out across the nation," said Perfect Game USA president Jerry Ford, whose company's Web site attracts five million visitors. "Rick Heller is one of the best coaches in college baseball.

"That program needs to be saved. If this program goes, a number of baseball opportunities created for players in the state of Iowa will be lost.

"I'd like to say our organization could provide the money ourselves, but that'd be impossible by April 5."

Finding the big donor has been the major hurdle. In addition to the rough economic climate, the university has only given the program a three-year window if the $1.2 million is raised. It needs a $10 million endowment to be sustained for good.

"Who in their right mind is going to give $1.2 million to a program that's told their dead in three years?" Ford said. "It just shows that the administration isn't very serious in keeping it around."

Kevin Sawatzky, a former Panther baseball player from 1993-97 and an accountant in Des Moines, and nine others held a teleconference last week to brainstorm ideas and possible contacts to raise the funds.

"Instead of sending the school president and others a barrage of e-mails concerning the issue, we decided to turn our energy and emotion into something positive," Sawatzky said. "It was a good first step. We didn't come up with all the answers either, but it was a very good starting point.

"Right now, we just need to get the word out. There's no doubt we need a couple of big hitters to come up with the dollars amount, especially with the time frame."

If you would like to pledge, visit the Web site at www.SupportUNIBaseball.com. Pledges can be made online. Pledges can also be made by e-mail to Heller at rick.heller@uni.edu.

Contact Matt Coss at (319) 291-1468 or matt.coss@wcfcourier.com