So I just bought Morrowind GOTY off of Amazon and I love it, but the combat is annoying the crap out of me! Since I'm use to Oblivion combat I died to a rat in the first mission in the Fighters Guild. Now I can't even kill the 2 egg poachers--mind you they have no armor, and a pickaxe, and I have an iron longsword, and bonemold armor.

Any tips/tricks to improve my hit-n-miss ratio? I probably get like 2 hits out of 7...

You should be getting about 4 out of seven at first and as your skills improve it will rapidly increase to about 6 out of 7. Make sure your fatigue bar is full. Fighting with low fatigue will drastically reduce your chance to hit. Use potions and enchants to restore it. There is an amulet you can buy for cheap at the mages guild in Balmora that will restore fatigue.

Also make sure to use a weapon you are skilled in, so if you are using a long sword, make sure long blade is one of your major skills. You need at least one weapon skill as a major skill and you should use that type of weapon. You need at least about 25 skill in a weapon to have a decent chance to hit. Once your weapon skill reaches about 50, you will rarely miss unless your fatigue is low or your agility is damaged. Hitting enemies depends on a number of factors, including your skill, your agility, your luck, your enemy's agility and luck and any active spell effects.

What is your race and class? It is recommended to have at least a 30-35 in your main weapon attribute to start off with.