It is an irrefutable fact that pitching is the most important aspect of a baseball team.

A good pitcher will win more games for a team that a great hitter will. Any team can score runs, but only the good ones can prevent them from being scored.

That has been the problem this season for Eastern’s baseball team.

Eastern is putting up runs in bunches now, but its record is not improving by much. The baseball team was averaging over six runs scored a game through 24 games, but the pitching staff allowed nearly eight runs a game.

Kudos to the Panthers for being able to score runs, but the pitching staff has to take responsibility for their 10-14 record.

If the Panthers’ pitching doesn’t start to show signs of improvement soon, fans have to wonder, how many 9-8 games can Eastern win.

Currently Eastern’s earned run average is 6.42, so some of the pitching staff’s problems does have something to do with the team’s 51 errors, but that is not a catch-all excuse considering Eastern’s opponents have committed errors and have a cumulative ERA of of 5.16.

The problem is not with the entire staff; two of Eastern’s seniors are pitching great, but aren’t getting wins.

Damon White and Nathan Stone both have ERAs under two (1.69, 1.10 respectively), but they have a combined 4-3 record.

Of the rest of Eastern’s pitching staff, only senior Matt Tyson has and ERA under five.

Four of the Panthers pitchers with seven or more innings worked this year have ERAs in double digits.

Eastern needs to fill a couple of holes in their pitching staff. The Panthers have three reliable pitchers, Stone, White and Tyson.

But after Sunday’s game, Tyson might be off that list. In 1/3 of an inning he gave up six runs on four hits, three earned. The only out he recorded was a strike out.

The Panthers need a good left arms somewhere in their staff. Of their 12 players listed as pitchers, only two, freshman Kirk Miller and sophomore Jason Pinnell, are left- handed and neither are dominating hitters.

Miller has pitched 10 innings in five appearances allowing 18 hits and 12 walks earning an astronomical 15.30 ERA.

Pinnell has fared better, but his 8.03 ERA is nothing worth bragging about.

Like Miller, control is a problem for Pinnell, who has yielded nine walks in 12 1/3 innings.

Control in general is a major problem for the Panthers, only four pitchers on the staff average over two innings without giving up a walk (White, Tyson, Stone and junior Andy Kuntz).

Adding a reliable left arm to the staff would help the Panthers, but getting more pitchers to find the strike zone would make a huge difference. It would cut down on the number of pitches allowing players limited by pitch counts to go deeper into games.

It would also cut down on the number of base runners able to score when the defense commits one of its 51 errors.

Eastern has proven it can score; now the OVC schedule has begun, however, it has to prove it can prevent teams from scoring.