By Matt Florjancic
MaxPreps.com
WOOSTER, OHIO ---The Cleveland Indians and two of their Northeast Ohio affiliates, the Lake County Captains of Eastlake and the Akron Aeros, were out of town for the Fourth of July. The only professional baseball game in Northern Ohio Friday featured the Columbus Clippers and Toledo Mudhens.
Despite the lack of professional baseball games in the area on America’s 232nd birthday, several high school athletes got a chance to abandon the normal aluminum bats utilized in scholastic competition and participated in a Wood Bat Tournament in Wayne County.
Among the several area American Legion-sponsored and high school summer league teams who played in the Tournament were squads from Barberton, Wadsworth, Wooster, the Canton GlenOak Summer Eagles and the Wayne American Legion.
On Friday afternoon, the Wayne American Legion played the first of back-to-back contests against the Summer Eagles. Though both teams had prepared for the tournament by using wood bats in practice and a few games, neither squad generated much offense.
Wayne American Legion third baseman Jac Strickler led the second inning off with a double. After stealing third base, Strickler scored on a sacrifice fly to center field off the bat of Cody Hartong. Strickler’s run was the only one of the game for either team.
“It’s a good experience for the kids because high schools and colleges are thinking about switching to wood,” said Wayne American Legion coach Michael Samson. “It gives you a better feel. A lot of the kids, they see the pros use wood bats. A lot of people think it’s easy. The kids are seeing it’s a lot harder than it looks.
“[With] wood bats, the sweet spots are a lot smaller,” Samson added. “You get one off the end of the bat, it’s not going to flare to the outfield. You’re going to shatter the bat and it’s going to be a weak ground ball. For me so far, it’s been a little frustrating. Normally, the team puts up close to eight runs a game. When you beat a team by one, it’s a little unnerving.”
“We’ve played in about four or five games with them,” said Summer Eagles coach Darrel Yingling. “I actually thought we’d swing them a little better. They were just a little slow today.
“We used them mostly for this tournament, but a lot of kids swing the wood during batting practice,” he added.
As a team, Wayne American Legion had just three hits, a single and double from Strickler as well as a base hit from catcher Derek Carmichael. The Summer Eagles also struggled to put runners on in the Independence Day affair.
Alec Bianchi of Canton GlenOak had both of his team’s singles. He also reached based on a walk, while Frank D’Orazio and Arin Glines hit into fielder’s choices.
“I like it a lot better than using metal bats,” Bianchi said of the wood bat experience. “It’s like you’re playing in the majors and you’re just getting a taste of what it would be like. [With] wood bats, it’s the power that the hitter has. [With] metal bats, you can rely on bats because they have so much pop.
“The outfield can play a little bit in and you know that they’re going to try to play a little bit of small ball,” he added. “I play third base, so I try to play a little bit in.”
Using wood bats instead of the aluminum bats utilized in Ohio high school baseball requires an adjustment period. Hitters as well as coaches have to change their approach to an at-bat in addition to situational hitting in a close game.
“A lot of the bats, if they’re wood, they’re not the original Negative 3SR Certified bats,” Samson said. “I tried to tell the kids that, but they don’t listen to me. If it’s a 33, it might be a 33/32 or a 33/31 instead of the original 33/30, so they might need to choke up. It’s just making adjustments to what you’re normally used to.
“You think you tag one pretty well and it’s a soft line drive to the outfielder. For the most part, if you hit line drives, the game’s the same. Those guys that tend to pop the ball up have a lot harder time because the ball’s not going to carry as far with a wood bat.”
Not only does he play at third base, Strickler pitches for the Wayne American Legion team. As the player in the middle of the diamond, he knows the difference between a line-drive off a wood bat versus those launched off aluminum.
“Most of them are top-heavy,” Strickler said of the wood bats. “If you hit it inside on the handle, it hurts even more. [Line drives] are not as intimidating. It’s not going to come back up the middle as fast.”
The debate over the use of aluminum baseball bats has raged since the first line drive endangered the health of a player. While the metal bats are more durable in the fact they do not break as often their wood counterparts, they could put players, specifically pitchers, at a higher risk of injury.
Many fans wonder if the Ohio High School Athletic Association will make the switch to wood bats. If the OHSAA made the change, a significant drop in offense will be expected by those close to the high school game.
“It’s kind of a mixed bag,” Samson said. “I understand there’s a lot of health concerns. I was a pitcher myself. Pitchers, third basemen, a lot of times, they get balls rocketed back at them and it gets dangerous.
“I like the fact that metal helps add offense to the game,” he continued. “Wood bats, they tend to get boring if you haven’t made the adjustment. The first year they use them, it’ll probably be rough. Years two, three, four, five, it’d get better.”
For traditionalists, Major League Baseball does it right by using wood bats, whether they are made of maple or ash.
“I think they’ll stick to aluminum,” Yingling said of the OHSAA. “I wish they’d go to wood bats. Kids can pitch, kids field and kids have to be hitters. Aluminum bats make everybody hitters. I like the pace of the game [with wood bats]. That’s the way it was meant to be played.”
Matt Florjancic currently works as a freelance reporter and a sports announcer for WOBL and WDLW in Oberlin, Ohio.