Those batting averages have certainly come down this year vs. a 7 year (I assume you did not recalculate H/PA for the 7 years, if you did, kudos to you, but the numbers may be bloated if you simply took an average of the averages). As for this year it's more like .285 BA and .560 ERA.(those are numbers for NESCAC, NEWMAC, LEC, CCC), conferences which typically have a nationally ranked team.
National Top 25 Schools this year from those conferences:
| NATIONAL Rk | Name | BA | ERA | Conference |
| 5 | Endicott (CCC) | 0.331 | 2.90 | CCC |
| 8 | Wheaton (NEWMAC) | 0.303 | 3.19 | NEWMAC |
| 13 | Eastern Connecticut (LEC) | 0.323 | 3.33 | LEC |
| 25 | Salve Regina (CCC) | 0.332 | 3.58 | CCC |
Ne teams often ranked or received votes: Amherst .318, Tufts .251, Middlebury .317, Wesleyan .293
Totals by the conferences listed:
| Conference | AVG | AB | H |
| NESCAC (New England Small College) | 0.298 | 10,226 | 3,047 |
| CCC (Commonwealth Coast) | 0.286 | 10,000 | 2,862 |
| LEC (Little East) | 0.283 | 10,268 | 2,908 |
| NEWMAC (New England Men's Women's) | 0.278 | 9,185 | 2,549 |
| Total | 0.286 | 39,679 | 11,366 |
I do think that D3 tends to recruit mostly based on hitting over everything else. (My son's team has seven listed 1B who can all hit but some have been brutal at 1st fielding low throws, which has cost them late in games) Pitching is recruited, in my estimation, based on Potential (Project-able) which takes 2 or so years to develop, so you get really good upperclassmen and really not so good FR/So , who often still have to pitch some innings (this is obviously a generalization, but we are talking averages). That also means the fielding doesn't quite help the pitching. After Covid I do think the play is getting better and pitching is also as there isn't a lot of room in D1 for new recruits so that may be why the numbers are getting more realistic as the talent filters down.
If you take the shortened covid year in that average, batting averages were way up that year vs others,, as pitchers got almost no ramp up in the NE before the shortened seasons got going.
As always, it's going to be about the quality of pitching.