Out with the wood, in with aluminum

The familiar crack of the bat that fans have become accustomed to when watching a game at John L. Harvey Field will be replaced this week by the "ping" that in these parts are only heard in high school ball, Little League and at the University of Nevada.

The Western Nevada baseball team is one of just a handful of junior college teams that play in a wood-bat league, but with the Western District tournament beginning at 11 a.m. today it is going to have to make the switch to aluminum bats per the National Junior College Athletic Association rules. The Wildcats open the tournament against Northeastern Junior College, the Region 9 winner.

"Everyone's just ... big smiles across our faces," WNC catcher Jerome Pena said. "It's going to be awesome."

The change is normally well received by hitters, but picking up a wood bat one day and an aluminum bat the next is hardly a simple switch. Hitters rely heavily on timing and the weight difference alone between the two bats is enough to make even the best hitters struggle.

Brian Barnett was the Scenic West Athletic Conference's co-Player of the Year last season after posting a .342 batting average and leading the conference in home runs (9) and total bases (79). But the Wildcats' strongest hitter struggled early on this season when playing with aluminum bats in non-conference games. Through the first eight games of the year, Barnett was a combined 4-for-30 with two doubles making up his only extra-base hits on the year. Then on the ninth game of the season, the timing finally came back to him and in the form of a 3-for-5 performance and his first home run of the year.

"I struggled in the beginning of the season with a metal bat," Barnett said. "I was getting pretty comfortable with wood, but I'll make the adjustment. I'll be fine."

Aluminum bats tend to only be a few ounces lighter than their wood counterparts, but the subtle weight change can put a hitch in a player's timing.

In a 2006 study conducted by Kettering University, it was found that because the balance point on aluminum bats is much lower on the handle that wood bats, they can be swung around faster. The difference allows hitters to sit back on pitches longer before making their swings.

"This affects performance because higher bat speed is directly related to higher batted ball speed," the study concluded. "The faster a player can swing a bat, the higher the final speed of the ball."

Aside from what aluminum bats do to a hitter's timing, the fast-traveling ball can play a burden on fielders. A study conducted by J.J. Trey Crisco and Rick Greenwald in 2000 found that aluminum bats have the potential to hit a ball 5-7 mph faster than a wood bat, which means that balls are more likely to find holes in the defense and give way to more hits and more runs. That is why in wood-bat leagues a .300 batting average is considered exceptional, but in aluminum-bat play that number goes up to .400.

Similarly, the science behind the bats explains why WNC's hitting stats don't even sniff the top of the leader board in the NJCAA. Jon Hedges of Olney Central College leads all of JUCO baseball with 97 RBIs, while WNC's Travis Feiner sits third in the conference with 49 - just four behind leader Tyler Chism of Southern Idaho.

The good news for the Wildcats is they have potentially four games this week if they lose one and play for the Western District championship in the double-elimination tournament to work those bugs out. Of the four teams in the tournament - which also includes Southern Idaho, Central Arizona and Northeastern - none come from aluminum-bat leagues and all will have the same hurdles to overcome while playing for the opportunity to move onto the JUCO World Series, which begins May 23 in Grand Junction, Colo.

"It's going to change a lot for the hitters and the pitchers," WNC coach D.J. Whittemore said. "It's really a different game, completely. It will be a tough adjustment, but the other teams have to make the same adjustment."