Going into the fall practices, Eastern head baseball coach Jim Schmitz had a lot of questions about his team that ended the 2005 season 17-39 and 14-13 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Fortunately for Schmitz, many of those questions were answered as the Panthers wrapped up fall ball with the Fall World Series, Eastern’s annual inter-squad scrimmage. The gray squad came back from a 1-0 deficit to win the series 2-1 but more importantly, Schmitz saw improvement in key positions.

“Last year was a disaster in the middle defensively,” Schmitz said. “We had many different combinations and none of them gave us the quality middle you need to win many games.”

Junior shortstop Adam Varrassi, who went 2-3 in the second game, and senior second baseman Blake Meyer emerged as the lead candidates to try and quell the Panthers’ woes up the middle, despite each accounting for seven errors last season.

“They seem very comfortable turning the double play together,” Schmitz said. “It takes awhile for these combinations to gel and I feel very confident with the great defense they showed this fall.”

Last year Eastern had trouble all season with their pitching staff. The Panthers finished second to last in the Ohio Valley Conference team ERA (6.71), runs (421) and last in walks (276).

Charleston native Brandon Murphy, who was 3-5 in the second game, transferred from Illinois for his junior year to help bolster the Panther pitching staff after Eastern lost its only two seniors, pitchers Ted Juske and Kyle Widegren. Muraphy pitched five innings of 2-run ball in the third game of the intersquad scrimmage.

Two pitchers, Eric Huber and Mike Manns, who didn’t see much of the mound because of arm trouble last season, will look to play big roles this season. Each of them struggled through brief appearances last season with a 10-plus ERA.

“(Erik) has developed into our closer with a nasty slider,” Schmitz said. “Mike came back this summer with so much more confidence. He has touched 92 mph this fall and is consistently 88-89.

“Plus, he gives us a different look being left handed.”

Huber got the save in game two retiring the side in the final inning. Junior pitcher Ryan Parsons also looked sharp in fall ball as he struck out the side in a relief appearance in the second game.

Schmitz said he was happy with the fall ball finale but still saw too many walks and errors, which the blue team had four in the second game.