WCWS bats

[lhowser]

In the 2009 at the College World Series Charlotte Morgan of Alabama broke an Easton Bat,
I remember seeing the game, in the early part of the season Alabama used the new Easton bats, but at the Regional, Supers Regional and College World Series they switched to the older bats.

This year Alabama players were using the NEW model Easton Synergy. Their opponent Hawaii this weekend was using the Black and Gold Stealth from I think 4 years ago and I saw UCLA using the 2008 Blue Synergy.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

From personal experience, the Eastern Stealth has not last long. Different story for the Synergy model ... holds up very well.

 

[softball_chic_12]

so a lot of colleges have been using easton bats and no one has seen one break except for the one Morgan from alabama broke. And most have seen older bats used. I find that very interesting. Is there an issue with the newer ones that they don't use the newer ones?

 

[Greenmonsters]

The 2009 and new bats must meet the ABI (accelerated break in) standard - that is, from first swing out of the wrapper until breakage they can never exceed the allowable ASA performance limits. As they break in, the performance of composite bats actually increases (i.e., the ball travels faster/further). The older composites that you see teams using are grandfathered and did not have to meet the ABI standard and most likely exceed the allowable ASA performance limits. The newer composites have to start well below the limits to ensure that their peak performance still remains legal. Metal bats aren't subject to the ABI testing requirements because their performance increase is generally limited (double walled metals will increase a little, but single walled metals won't get hotter). If you've read about the Anderson Nanotek, one of the selling points is that it is single walled metal bat that from first swing to last is right at the legal limit.

PS - If you see several players on the same team swinging the same beat up looking bat, you can bet that it's one of the hot old composites! These bats are hottest right before they break, which is why you see them sold used for prices that exceed their original price new!

 

[SBDadSanDiego]

I don't think there was one girl on UCLA that wasn't swinging the Easton scn1b.

 

[fastpitch91]

The older bats are hotter, guaranteed due to the spec change. Most of the players swinging the older bats do not get them from the sponsor they buy them on their own, or saved them up when the spec change was coming, becasue the bats are better. DD plays for easton sponsored team and Easton does not ahve any of the old bats to hand out. They were stuck with the crummy old clarity series bats.

The NCAA did tell the umps to pull any bats with loose connection joints ( stealths) and confiscate them for th e duration of the playoffs. Reasoning was that they were "unsafe" but the reality was they are too HOT. DD team had two confiscated in DIII series and had a convesation with parent in DII that had same thing happen.

 

[mudbug]

The older bats are hotter, guaranteed due to the spec change. Most of the players swinging the older bats do not get them from the sponsor they buy them on their own, or saved them up when the spec change was coming, becasue the bats are better. DD plays for easton sponsored team and Easton does not ahve any of the old bats to hand out. They were stuck with the crummy old clarity series bats.
.

Not sure thats totally true. I recall a camera shot of a bat-rack in UCLA's dugout, it was loaded to the gills with purple/white 2008 stealth, and they were all very clean and shiny and new looking. I think its conceivable that a program like that either bought a lot of bats while they were still available, or Easton had some stock they had acess to at some point, or something. This did not look like girls personal 2 yr old bats. I know what my DDs bats look like after one yr, they look like a beat up, scratched, nicked, scuffed bat.. These looked new.

Some other teams where the girls were using 2006 synergys, stealths, etc the bats looked older, and Id buy that.