Decision Likely Today on UCI Teams’ Future : Cutbacks: Athletic director, chancellor meet to discuss fate of sports in light of $415,000 deficit.

UC Irvine Athletic Director Tom Ford, hoping to ride out a financial crisis without dropping baseball or any other sport, met Tuesday with Chancellor Jack Peltason to seek a solution.

Ford has called a coaches’ meeting for today and is expected to make a public statement on the fate of the school’s 19 teams, all of which expect budget cutbacks in the face of a projected $415,000 deficit.

Baseball Coach Mike Gerakos said this week he had “every indication and feeling that the program will survive and move on,” but that he wouldn’t feel comfortable until he heard the word.

If the program survives, the next step would be to “assess the damage,” Gerakos said. Concern about its future has probably already cost the team two of its top recruits.

Baseball supporters rallied around a team that wore black armbands in its final game of the season. At an athletic fund-raising meeting Thursday, boosters raised $6,000 toward the team’s $200,000 budget in a matter of minutes, including a $500 gift from basketball Coach Rod Baker.

Some members of the baseball team met Monday with Ford, as Chris Huber and David Bladow gave him a petition urging that the team be saved.

But Gerakos said Tuesday evening he had not heard the results of Ford’s meeting with Peltason and other university officials.