IS your bat going to be outlawed ????

NCAA to test bats from Women's College World Series
Associated Press
Updated: May 30, 2007, 10:33 PM ET



OKLAHOMA CITY -- The NCAA will test two bats per team in the Women's College World Series for the first time this year to see if they meet the safety standards meant to protect players and ensure fair play.
After the series, the bats will be taken to a laboratory at Washington State University run by Dr. Lloyd Smith to test the exit speed of balls leaving the bat, said Dee Abrahamson, the NCAA's secretary-rules editor for softball.
The testing is funded by a $25,000 grant and is focused on bats made from composite materials.
"Unlike aluminum that gets dead with time, the composite bats get better with time. They break in," Abrahamson said Wednesday.
Besides the 16 bats from the Division I world series, Abrahamson said four bats apiece from Division II and Division III will be tested. The grant funds will also pay for up to six additional bats.
"We kind of left ourselves a little wiggle room because we'd like to go a cross-section of lengths and weights and a cross-section of manufacturers to see if what we're asking these players to defend themselves against are the standard that we thought they were," Abrahamson said.
Certified bats are not to have an exit speed higher than 98 mph, a speed calculated from the reaction time of corner infielders and pitchers and the approximate velocity produced by bats in the 1980s, Abrahamson said.
"If we find one that comes up faster than that, we're going to look for another bat of that same model and send that in," Abrahamson said. "The ASA certification process is kind of a three-strike-and-out process."
Manufacturers of offending bats could be asked to address the concerns or else be told by the Amateur Softball Association to take the bats off store shelves, Abrahamson said.
All the bats used at the NCAA softball championships were approved before their use, but the concern is that their performance changes as they are broken in. Abrahamson said the tests are not being done to catch cheaters, but to protect the integrity of the game and players' safety.
Mike Candrea, who coaches defending NCAA champion Arizona as well as the U.S. national team, said "technology has caught up to the game" and he supports the bat tests.
"That's been talked about for years," Candrea said. "We came in here one year and hit a bunch of home runs, and it was the bats."
Candrea said he'd also support moving outfield walls back to at least 220 feet, the international standard, as another way to lessen the impact of improving technology and put an emphasis on defense.
The NCAA has already switched to a softer core in its softballs and implemented standards to control the hardness of the ball, and examining the bats is the next move. Further examination of how the balls are tested could also be on the horizon, Abrahamson said.
"There have been some scores lately like 19-10. The fast-pitch game was never intended to be a 19-10 deal or 15-0," Abrahamson said. "We want to have a good balance between our offense and defense, and if the ball is too hot or the bat is too hot, it will affect it."

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

 

Not in this game , tonight

But in the regionals , I saw 2-3 batters using a OLD beat up MIKEN , it looked like a MIKEN FREAK ?? But they must think it had more pop !!

 

here comes the "move the bases back dude"

at this point, marlin has not ventured past the original thread. i'll bet we see, what now is the "fix" in fastpitch,...move the bases. it will come from a valued member who must truly believe it will work. ***pitchers, God bless them, have ruled this game. hitters have gained a little, say ..lefty slap etc. this great game is starving for offense. lets face the facts here tbr, 1-0 soccer or hockey games are the exact reason why these sports respectively, are not interesting to GQ public. i don't care if the bases are moved or bats are changed or whatever, as long as the change will bring positive attention to the sport.