Sports briefs 5/28/05

Baseball

* Cubs pitcher Mark Prior left Friday's game in the fourth inning after being hit in the right elbow by a line drive hit by Colorado's Brad Hawpe.

X-rays on Prior's elbow were negative, Cubs trainer Mark O'Neal said. The pitcher also underwent an MRI exam, but the team didn't expect the results until today.

"He has a minor lateral inflammation right in the area where it hit him and he has a moderate amount of swelling," O'Neal said.

With the scored tied 1-all, Hawpe led off the fourth and hit Prior's first pitch back up the middle. After striking Prior, the ball deflected to third baseman Aramis Ramirez who caught it for the first out of the inning.

Prior collapsed and rolled in pain on the mound. He was helped off the field by the Cubs training staff. The right-hander was replaced by reliever Todd Wellemeyer.

O'Neal didn't want to speculate on the severity of the injury, or how much time the ace might miss.

College

* University of Missouri-Columbia Police Chief Jack Watring's handling of a Kansas student during a game in March was "within the bounds of his duty as a police officer," the university said Friday following a 12-week internal investigation.

Still, university officials apologized for failing to have a policy on signs inside Mizzou Arena, where a Jayhawks fan said the chief assaulted him after Watring took down a banner that poked fun at the arena's name.

The Tigers hosted their University of Kansas rivals March 6. The confrontation happened before Missouri's upset win, when Kansas graduate student Chris Kaufman and three friends, with permission from an arena employee, hung a 6-foot banner that listed alternative names for the arena.

A man in Missouri fan attire started taking down the banner and rolling it up. Kaufman asked the man to stop. The man, Kaufman said, wrapped a fist around Kaufman's collar and said, "Do you know who I am? I'm the Chief of Police Watring."