Hey if were not gonna make the ASUN tournament, we might as well beat the crap out of somebody.

♫ Poor, Poor, Maryland-Eastern Shore ♫

What I'm not understanding is this team has been complete garbage, but then beats Tennessee twice, plays Ga. Tech and Uga to one run, and at times shows signs of life. This program was headed in the right direction two years ago, and now it's in the toilet. What's up?

It's rather simple.

In college baseball the scholarships aren't there to fully put everyone on scholarship. So, Tennessee puts the back end of their staff against ETSU and the Bucs benefit.

In the case of Maryland Eastern-Shore, here's a team that is even more pathetic than ETSU. They are now 5-42.

The lowest ERA on their staff is at 5.73. It would not surprise me if none of the pitchers were on scholarship.

The guy they threw out there against the Bucs who mopped up and gave up 15 runs in the last four innings has an ERA of 14.16.

"But Pitt," you say, "ERA is often a misleading stat because pitchers no longer go nine and at this level the fielding isn't as good- hence range and errors compromise the numbers."

Very true. So let's look at bit more at this pitcher's stats.

He's 0-2.

He has pitched 27 1/3 innings and allowed 73 hits.

His strikeouts to walks ratio is 9-18 (at least he throws strikes).

He's allowed 8 home runs.

Batters are hitting .500 against him.

This guy is actually listed as an infielder but has been called on to pitch 11 times, presumably because the Hawks have no pitchers and he stands 6-5, so at least he physically looks good on the mound.

This is one of the problems of Title IX. We have to give women's tennis four scholarships or something, so baseball has to suffer with this gross competitive imbalance.

Pitt,

I sure I am missing the point but I believe ETSU has close to full if not the full allotment of scholarships. Almost all of the ETSU teams have a full allotment which is another reason why they should dominate thier ASun peers

You are missing the point.

Full allotment of baseball scholarships doesn't begin to cover the back end of a pitching staff. It's about 12 players.

So let's say you give scholarships to the starting nine. There's now room for three pitchers.

So you're not going to see real good pitching out of middle relief or the middle of the rotation.

My guess is that the pitchers who UT and UGA threw at ETSU were not on scholarship.