Arizona State tailback Terry Battle, who rushed...

Arizona State tailback Terry Battle, who rushed for 1,043 yards and 18 touchdowns last season despite limited playing time in the first six games, will skip his senior year and seek to be drafted by the NFL.

Also declaring for the draft were Florida receiver Reidel Anthony, Alabama linebacker Dwayne Rudd and San Diego State receiver Will Blackwell, who is projected as a second- or third-round pick.

Miami wide receiver Yatil Green will join teammates Tremain Mack, a wide receiver, and Kenard Lang, a defensive end, in making himself eligible for the draft.

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Earl Young, 21, a backup defensive back for Fresno State, died Thursday after he collapsed while walking to class. Authorities did not issue a cause of death. . . . Thomas E. “Shorty” McWilliams, who played with the Los Angeles Dons in 1949 and in Army’s backfield with Heisman Trophy winners Glenn Davis and Doc Blanchard, died in Meridian, Miss., at 70.

Baseball

Shigetoshi Hasegawa, a right-handed pitcher from Japan, has signed with the Angels. Hasegawa, 28, had a 53-39 record with a 3.11 earned-run average in Japan from 1991-95. He was 4-6 with a 5.34 ERA with the Orix Blue Wave last season.

The New York Yankees agreed to a $1-million, one-year contract with free-agent outfielder Mark Whiten and re-signed infielder Luis Sojo to a $400,000, one-year contract. . . . The Detroit Tigers signed veteran outfielder Vince Coleman to a minor league contract.

Tennis

Top-ranked Pete Sampras and Steffi Graf were named the top-seeded players for the Australian Open, the season’s first Grand Slam event, which begins Monday in Melbourne.

The tournament also added a name to its growing list of withdrawals when French Open champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who was seeded fourth, broke his hand in a gym Thursday.

Jennifer Capriati, slowly putting her wayward career back on track, upset Lindsay Davenport, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, to reach the final of the Sydney International. Top-seeded Goran Ivanisevic lost in the men’s semifinal, 4-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-1, to Britain’s Tim Henman.

Marianne Werdel-Witmeyer reached the final of the Tasmanian International tournament with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Els Callens of Belgium.

Miscellany

The U.S. Olympic Committee is auditing the U.S. Taekwondo Union over claims that two rival leaders misspent more than $200,000 of the group’s funds.

Six cities are being considered to host the first of two U.S. final-round CONCACAF World Cup qualifying soccer games. The possible sites for the March 16 game against Canada include Palo Alto, Washington, Jacksonville, Fla.; Birmingham, Ala.; Foxboro, Mass., and East Rutherford, N.J.

Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser, who survived two nights of a blizzard in the mountains of New Mexico, faces up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine for violating the federal Wilderness Act by driving a snowmobile into a federal wilderness area.

Boxing

Former champions Carlos Palomino, 47, Gerrie Coetzee, 41, and Lupe Aquino, 33, return to the ring tonight at the Hollywood Palladium. . . . Former world champions Thomas Hearns and John Mugabi will co-headline a card at the Forum on Jan. 31. . . . Heavyweight Andrew Golota received a two-year suspended prison sentence and a $7,000 fine in Warsaw for beating up a man in a disco brawl in 1990.

Names in the News

Sheryl Swoopes will sit out most of the Women’s NBA inaugural season because she is pregnant. . . . Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Stephon Marbury faces charges that he has failed to financially support his 22-month-old daughter.