MADISON TOWNSHIP — It’s not that unmistakable crack of a wooden bat or the shrill ping of its aluminum cousin.
The noise is somehow different and it floods Wayne E. Miller Gymnasium on a snowy Tuesday afternoon.
The start of the regular season is less than a week away and Mother Nature has forced Madison’s baseball team into the gym. Winter is not ready to yield its icy grip just yet — Tuesday’s fast-moving snow storm created white-out conditions on Esley Lane — but the Rams have Monday’s opener at Mount Vernon to prepare for and they need to get in some extra work in the batting cage.
By his own admission, Doug Rickert is having trouble getting the ball over the plate. When Madison’s veteran skipper finally finds the strike zone, his batting practice fastballs are promptly rocketed back at him. One screaming line drive after another ricochets off the protective screen standing in front of Rickert.
When he has had enough, Rickert yields to assistant coach Matt Brown and the session continues unabated.
More hard liners sail into the screen.
But the sound of the bat striking the ball is different. Instead of the ear-splitting ping, it’s more of a thwack.
“They still don’t sound the way they used to,” said Rickert, who starred for the Rams in the 1980s and has been one of Richland County’s most successful coaches for the past 10-plus years.
The upcoming season marks the third year for the use of BBCOR-certified bats (BBCOR stands for batted-ball coefficient of restitution). The Ohio High School Athletic Association, following in the footsteps of the NCAA and working off the recommendation of the National Federation of State High School Associations, adopted the BBCOR standard for the 2012 season in an attempt to give fielders — and especially pitchers — more time to react to batted balls.
To be BBCOR-certified, a bat must meet several standards. Ultimately, the goal is to decrease the trampoline effect between bat and ball, reducing the speed of the ball as it leaves the bat.
“Two years ago, the BBCOR bats were horrible,” Rickert said. “Just from swinging them and watching the kids swing them this year, I can say they have gotten a little bit better.
“It’s still not at all like it used to be in the late-’90s and early-2000s … but they are better.”
The OHSAA has been attempting to slow down batted balls for the past decade. Before BBCOR bats, there were BESR (baseball exit speed ratio) bats.
“The bats aren’t as good as they used to be,” longtime Clear Fork coach Rusty Staab said. “Offense is down, but the change was made with player safety in mind and I support that.”
BBCOR-certified bats are less forgiving than their aluminum predecessors. The sweet spot is smaller and the ball reacts like it is coming off a wooden bat.
“Balls that used to be home runs or doubles are fly ball outs,” Ontario coach and 2006 Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee Dan Gorbett said. “There is no doubt that there is a significant difference in the way the ball reacts coming off the new bats. There was a pretty big adjustment period, especially that first year, but I think our guys have adjusted pretty well.”
The crown jewel of Ohio high school baseball, the state tournament, is a good indicator of the effect that BBCOR bats have had on the game. There were a total of 30 runs scored in the four state championship games last spring, an average of 7.5 runs per game. That number was the exact same in 2012, the first year for BBCOR bats.
In 2011, the final year before the switch, teams combined to score and average of 10.8 runs per game. In 2010, teams scored an average of nine runs per game.
Clear Fork won a Division III state title in 2010, pounding Wheelersburg 14-3 in six inning in the title game. The Colts averaged a whopping 11.8 runs per game that spring.
Less offense means coaches put more of an emphasis on “small ball” — moving runners one base at a time, stealing bases and bunting.
“For us, we bunt when we think we should bunt and swing when we think we should swing,” Rickert said. “We’re a little bigger and a little stronger this year, so that helps.”
The Rams, who managed just one hit in a 3-0 district semifinal loss to Perrysburg last spring, took their annual preseason trip to Dayton last weekend. Madison hit three home runs in three games.
“By comparison, we hit two home runs all of last season,” Rickert said.
Ontario won its second district title in three years last year. The Warriors, who won the Division III poll championship, lost to eventual state runner-up Bloom-Carroll 4-1 in the regional semifinals.
“We’ve never emphasized home runs. They have never been a big part of our game,” Gorbett said. “Since the BBCOR bats were introduced, our guys realize how important it is to do all the little things.”
Coaches agreed that preventing a scene like the one that played out in Surprise, Ariz., last week, when Cincinnati Reds closer Aroldis Chapman was struck in the face by a line drive off the bat of Kansas City’s Salvador Perez in the sixth inning of a spring training game, is what is most important. The hard-throwing Chapman — the pitch Perez hit was clocked at 99 mph — was carried off the field on a stretcher and required surgery to repair the fracture above his left eye.
“And that was with a wood bat,” Staub said. “Anything that can be done to protect the players is something we all can support.”
Follow Curt Conrad on Twitter @curtjconrad.
“We’ve never emphasized home runs. They have never been a big part of our game,” Gorbett said. “Since the BBCOR bats were introduced, our guys realize how important it is to do all the little things.”
