The long ball has become an integral part of modern college baseball.
Granted, this isn’t a new development. Home runs were plentiful in the late 1990s with the rise of “Geauxrilla Ball.” But the implementation of BBCOR standard bats in 2011, which were meant to lower the “trampoline effect” of metal bats, reduced home run totals drastically.
The change made that season one of the hardest for Jay Johnson as a coach.
“It was so drastically different of a game,” the current LSU coach said.
But the new sticks only temporarily curbed home runs. With pitchers throwing harder than ever before and hitters getting much stronger, home runs are a major part of the sport again, especially in the Southeastern Conference.
Johnson said the uptick in homers has led some SEC coaches to believe the college game should transition to using wooden bats. Johnson is not among them.
He argues home runs and high scores have helped the sport become more popular. Abnormally high run totals are a hallmark of the sport and a true differentiator from the professional ranks.
“I think it’s something that makes college baseball unique,” Johnson said on his radio show Monday. “And I think we’re in a really popular spot right now. There’s more talent in college baseball, meaning more talent in the SEC, probably than ever before because of the contraction of the minor leagues, the contraction of the draft.
“It’s pretty marketable right now. At least in our league, everybody’s going all in on baseball. It’s forcing us to have to hustle, to keep up and keep where you want it to be. And I think the aluminum bat thing is unique.”
Junior Jared Jones agrees with his coach, even if the slugger is used to hitting with wooden bats, having played in wooden bat leagues growing up.
“Obviously, summer ball is wood bat as well. So, I think it’d be interesting,” Jones said. “(But) I think metal bats make college a little bit more exciting, a little bit more fun, but we’ll see.”
Sophomore Steven Milam is more open to playing with wooden bats. He used wooden bats last summer while playing for the U.S. Collegiate National Team.
“Wood would be cool, I’d say,” Milam said. “At USA, it was really cool to play with wood again and just kind of get the natural feel back.”
It’s no accident that the best teams in the sport over the last few seasons were also ones that could consistently hit the ball out of the park.
En route to winning its first national championship last season, Tennessee broke its program home run record by blasting 184. The Volunteers became the first program in NCAA history to have five players with 20 or more homers and were just four long balls shy of reaching LSU’s single-season home run record set in 1997.
The year before, when LSU won its seventh national title, it had eight players with double-digit homers and hit 144 on the season.
The Tigers entered Thursday’s game against Mississippi State only 18th in the country in homers, but they hit three Thursday in an 8-6 comeback win over the Bulldogs. To keep up with the times, they’ll need to have more nights like that for a return to Omaha.
“I was talking to somebody yesterday that is a fan, not like a baseball person,” Johnson said. “And they were telling me how much they love it. Like it’s so much more exciting when it’s 13-11 as opposed to 2-1.”
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