Now that the midseason baseball statistics are available, it is possible to back up hunches with concrete numbers: This season's baseball bats are not as hot as last year's bats, according to Don Kessinger, chair of the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee and associate athletics director and assistant baseball coach at the University of Mississippi.

"We're seeing more shutouts, more low-scoring games," he said. "Strategy is coming back into the game."

Midseason statistics released by the Association a few weeks ago show batting averages, home-run averages and pitchers' earned-run averages all are lower than last season in Division I. Also notable is a comparison between this season's trends and those from the 1998 season.

Batting averages went from .303 in 1999 and .306 in 1998 (an all-time high) to .294 at the middle of the season this year. Home runs per game stand at 0.77 this season compared to 0.95 in 1999 and 1.06 (another all-time high) in 1998. Earned-run average has improved from a 1998 high of 6.12 to 5.94 in 1999 and 5.49 by midseason this year.

The decline in offense can be attributed to changes in the NCAA's bat protocol, said Ty Halpin, NCAA publications editor and liaison to the Baseball Rules Committee. "Declines like these are what the committee was trying to achieve," Halpin said. "I think perhaps the most telling trend is that the home runs are down."

Bats used in 1999 had to meet a two-prong standard that limited their diameter to 2 5/8 inches and specified that they could be no more than 3 ounces lighter than their weight in inches. This year's bats must meet a three-prong standard that added a batted-ball exit speed of no more than 97 miles per hour in the laboratory.

"It's absolutely a better game than it was two years ago," Kessinger said. "Then, we'd gotten to the point that the bats were too hot. This year, the players who are hitting home runs are the ones who should be hitting home runs. You used to see a lot of little guys hitting opposite-field home runs. You don't see that as much right now."

Halpin also noted that the NCAA Baseball Research Panel will continue to monitor the bats used this season, and the group also is planning to explore the possibility of adding a balance-point requirement to the standard, an issue that has received a great deal of attention lately.

"The panel will continue to review the bat standard," Halpin said. "Those plans have not changed."

-- Kay Hawes