This Vandy v. USCe game is the fourth low scoring extra inning game of the tournament. I heard a statistic that there have been more double plays turned in this tournament than there have been extra base hits (it might have just been doubles, but the point remains).
Don't get me wrong, I love pitching duels as much as the next guy, but this is just ridiculous. The ball just absolutely dies off these bats. I know that a big part of the reason for the new bats is to protect the players, particularly the pitchers, from hard hit balls, and I'm fine with that. Really, I am. Another reason I've heard is so that scouts can get a better gauge on a prospect's power, and that's totally understandable too. But surely there's some happy middle ground between gorilla ball and a return to the 19th century dead-ball era? I mean, there's got to be some way to protect the players and give scouts a good look, while not virtually taking all the power out of the game.
Don't get me wrong, I love pitching duels as much as the next guy, but this is just ridiculous. The ball just absolutely dies off these bats. I know that a big part of the reason for the new bats is to protect the players, particularly the pitchers, from hard hit balls, and I'm fine with that. Really, I am. Another reason I've heard is so that scouts can get a better gauge on a prospect's power, and that's totally understandable too. But surely there's some happy middle ground between gorilla ball and a return to the 19th century dead-ball era? I mean, there's got to be some way to protect the players and give scouts a good look, while not virtually taking all the power out of the game.