LORMAN &045; Alcorn’s coaching staff had the right idea last summer when it went after all the pitching it could find.

Yet after a late-season collapse ended the Braves’ season prematurely, it may have been due in part to the lack of pitching again. The off-season objective may not be as urgent this summer for veteran head coach Willie &uot;Rat&uot; McGowan and his staff following their 22-18-1 campaign, but one thing will be required for handling a pitching staff that was youth-dominated this past season.

Patience.

&uot;That hurt us down there in the tournament,&uot; said McGowan, whose club made the SWAC Tournament for the first time since 2002 but had the same result in two games, two losses. &uot;My pitching held us all during the season, and when we got into the tournament we scored a lot of runs in both ball games. My pitching kind of broke down.

&uot;We’re looking for pitching, but what’s so good about it is we’re only going to lose one pitcher.&uot;

Instead of maybe going out and finding more arms, McGowan and staff will work with what they have to get better. Things did bottom out at the end of the season after projected ace Earl Smith went down with an injury.

Freshman Baron K. Short lost his rhythm and went from No. 1 weekend starter to the bullpen. Things got so bad at the tournament the Braves went with closer Matt Chatwin to start an elimination game against Jackson State, and the Canadian wound up hurting his elbow.

So what did the Braves have to show for 23 runs in their first two games at the SWAC Tournament?

A bus ride home thanks to 36 runs allowed and eight errors.

&uot;I don’t want to put it on the pitching because the pitchers did well and the hitters didn’t perform,&uot; second baseman Corey Wimberly said. &uot;We didn’t do enough to win. We did enough to stay close, but as a team we didn’t do enough to win. We put up 12 runs, didn’t have any errors and still lost.

&uot;The next game Chatwin hurt his arm, and we basically ran out of bullpen. We weren’t making the plays behind them. Just being on the field for so long, things started happening. They put the pressure on us to make plays, and we didn’t perform.&uot;

Short, like most of the pitchers on the roster this spring, will return next year a little more experienced and knowledgeable of how to pitch at the college level. Short struggled at the end and finished with an ERA above eight, and from there the Braves used a number of younger pitchers &045; sophomores Chris Walker and Micah Finch and freshmen Donald Nixon, Michael Heu and Jeff Jones.

Smith, the hard-throwing right-hander out of California, went down midway through with an injury and is slated for surgery on his elbow during the off-season.

The Braves’ team ERA of 6.50 was higher than last year’s 6.28 with a staff of mainly seven people.

&uot;We’ll keep them around and hope they’ll mature,&uot; McGowan said. &uot;A lot of them are young. We hope next year will be their year. B.K. is a freshman. It was just one of those things by him being so young. Most of the teams can hit the fastball, and he throws it 88 or 89.

&uot;We’ve got to work with him mixing it up throwing changeups or curveballs with him throwing that hard. I hope he’ll work on that this summer, and that’ll probably help him with his fastball.&uot;

Yet the biggest area of concern will be defense &045; particularly up the middle &045; for a team that struggled in the infield in that area. The Braves are expecting to lose Wimberly to the MLB draft, will lose speedy center fielder Derrell Tidwell and may move shortstop Kevin Gaston to left field.

The Braves struggled finding a permanent left fielder after Rodney Hayes was dismissed from the team midway through. Greg White may have the strongest arm on the team, but his 23 errors led the team.

&uot;We played better defense this year than we did last year,&uot; McGowan said. &uot;We’re trying to sign a lot of second basemen and shortstops and trying to get some depth in there.&uot;

White’s bat, however, may have been the biggest surprise on the team with his .361 average and 31 runs batted in, both third-best team marks. The Braves picked it up at the plate with a .322 batting average with a conference-low 203 strikeouts.

While Wimberly was the main ticket in that lineup with his .462 average, the Braves like right fielder Caleb Betschart and what he could do as a junior in 2006. As a sophomore, he hit .382 with 16 doubles, 41 runs batted in and only three errors in 34 games.

All those marks were team-bests, and he was behind Wimberly in strikeouts with just 10 in 131 at-bats.

&uot;Caleb did excellent,&uot; McGowan said. &uot;We had our catcher hitting fourth, and they were pitching around Caleb. Then we moved him up, and they had to pitch to him. He had an outstanding season, and his defense was so good. You know, he’ll be a junior when he gets back here.&uot;