Need advice: practice bat

[Makakio]

Don't think of it as a "Practice bat". It's also your cold weather game bat, your back up game bat, incase the Prism breaks during a tournament... your waiting on the warranty replacement game bat.... You DD's primary bat, when she decides the prism is unlucky....

Anyway, I am guessing your DD is young, 8u or 10u? Because if you have been doing this for any length of time, you would a bucket full of old bats in your garage...

My approach for a 8u or 10u would be run with one bat, which likely will not break, until she's ready for a new bat... then the prism becomes the back up/practice bat.

But, if you DO want to buy a back up... What size bat are you looking for? I'll check the bat bucket in my garage....

Thanks - appreciated. My Daughter is a 14yo varsity highschool freshman player and she'll play 16U this coming fall. Though an excellent player, she strictly plays for pleasure so we've been of the pass-it-down mentality on gear she outgrows. Unlike many of my travel counterpart parents who see softball as the investment path to their child's higher education (and invest what I consider to be crazy amounts of money in equipment, travel and lessons), we've been good with a mid-range bat to now and as we've crossed into a post-COVID / mostly-grown, new-gear phase I want to set her up for the coming years with stuff that won't be handed down in a season when she outgrows.

I agree with your sentiment that this should be a "backup" bat. We don't get many composite-cracking cold days here in California fortunately, but she does spend time in the cage and the type/quality of ball outside of practice scrimmages and games is *always* questionable (hence my reluctance to buy her two $300+ bats). and of course I'm waiting for that DeMarini to break...

Was hoping to get her an alu bat for the cage and dorking around. Same length as her Prism, similar drop. Similar balanced swing feel - but more durable. 33 seems to be a super elusive size for Alu. Any product ideas there would be appreciated.

 

[HunterMO]

Ebay is my go to for cage bats. Can pick up an older used model Demarini or Slugger or Easton for $80 or so in decent shape. Note: My DD has taken a liking to a few of them and used them in games and gone yard so don't think just because they are on Ebay they are dead.

This year we finally decided DD was going to need a “cage bat” as we knew she’d be hitting everyday with her school team, then taking hitting lessons, hitting at home, and practicing with her TB team.

She loved the Xeno we got her so I just went on EBay to find an older/used model that was a cheap price and not terribly beat up. The only problem was I found a brand new 2019 model for such a good price I couldn’t pass it up. Almost the same used ones were going for.

But I was fully prepared to simply by a used one for practice/cold weather/whatever.

 

[Makakio]

This year we finally decided DD was going to need a “cage bat” as we knew she’d be hitting everyday with her school team, then taking hitting lessons, hitting at home, and practicing with her TB team.

She loved the Xeno we got her so I just went on EBay to find an older/used model that was a cheap price and not terribly beat up. The only problem was I found a brand new 2019 model for such a good price I couldn’t pass it up. Almost the same used ones were going for.

But I was fully prepared to simply by a used one for practice/cold weather/whatever.

The Xenos are leading my list.

 

[texasheat]

The Xenos are leading my list.

A Xeno would be a great choice, probably the best choice, for someone that swings a Prism. There are tons of options on Ebay. Be sure to look at the pictures to get a feel for the condition.