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By Bat Digest | Last Updated November 17, 2022
DeMarini’s 2022 ZOA is a two-piece composite bat that will be available in BBCOR and USSSA. USSSA versions of the bat in a drop 10, 8 and 5. All of the bats have great ratings with drop 5 and 8 leading the charge. The added weight of those lower drops makes gives hitters the right kind of confidence when attacking higher pitch speeds. Even still, the BBCOR and drop 10 do just fine and anyone with a limitless budget and in the market for a two piece composite should consider any version of the 2022 ZOA.
Our hitters love the big barrel and light swing of the 2022 DeMairni ZOA. In BBCOR, the bat is a hit—the stiffer connection and light swing make big fans of the kids who need as much bat speed as they can find. Although it didn’t wow us anymore than the $50 less expensive CF, the ZOA feels great in USSSA and will for sure take market share from those who don’t like the history of the durability of the CF.
Although pricey, we expect the ZOA a good fit for the BBCOR or USSSA player who wants a bat like the CF or META but doesn’t want either the CF or the META. The CF had a very flexible connection and gets bad reviews because of it—despite hitting the ball about as hard as any BBCOR bat. It follows, then, that the ZOA is for a hitter that wants a big barrel, light swing, great feel on every hit, and the latest and greatest that DeMarini offers.
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The most comparable bat is the CF from DeMarini and Slugger’s Meta. Both are designed by the same major company (Wilson), and both have that big barrel and light swing.
There is no version of the ZOA for 2021 or previous. The ZOA is a new bat line started in 2022 beginning with BBCOR.
We don’t know much about the 2022’s construction just yet, but we know it has a redesigned end cap, barrel, connection piece, and handle compared to something like the CF. This is a composite bat with a large barrel and, at least in non-DL versions, a light swing.
System override. Introducing the 2022 DeMarini Zoa (-5) USSSA Baseball Bat, a bold addition to the composite USSSA lineup. Zoa (-5), the bat designed for advanced travel ball players on the cusp of transitioning to BBCOR, brings DeMarini’s Continuous Fiber Composite Barrel technology to the USSSA game. Through its technologically advanced construction process, Continuous Fiber Composite offers an elongated barrel profile and larger optimized hitting area. The stiff composite material maximizes energy transfer on contact, allowing the 2022 Zoa to deliver extreme consistency and performance.
The overall rating uses seven different weighted metrics to determine our overall score. Half of total rating comes from the player and our exit speed tests (Player Rating: 25%, Performance: 25%).The other categories are Relevance (20%), Demand (10%), Durability (10%), Resell Score (5%), and Tech Specs (5%).
*: When a bat is denoted by a star (*) it is a preliminary rating. Expect it to be updated as we learn more about the bat and gather more data.
(PlaRa) Player Rating: We measure player rating from user reviews. Those users include our own hitters that we test at the lab as well as reviews we find online.
(ExVe) Performance: Performance measures the exit speeds and distances we capture in our hitting lab with HitTrax using these bats.
(Relv) Relevance: We measure the number of sizes and the MOI of the bat. Bats with a wider range of options get a better score.
(Dmnd) Demand: Demand is measured by consumer sentiment and the buzz around the bat.
(Drb) Durability: A bat’s durability is measured by user reviews as well as feedback from manufacturers.
(ReSl) Resell Score: Based on the price the bats go for used. Higher prices mean greater user demand which means, generally, a better bat. A resell value closer to its original price means a higher score.
(Tech) Tech Specs: We rate the bat on its technological advancements from previous years and compared to the industry at large. This is our chance to reward companies who are trying to innovate.
MOI
MOI or Mass Moment of Inertia is a measurement of bat swing weight. This quantifies how difficult it is to swing a bat. The industry often refers to this as things like End Load or Balanced but those words have been overused to the point of meaninglessness. We measure the actual swing weights of each bat we test using the industry-standard pendulum period, balance point, and scale weight. You can read more about that here.
Price
The price is the original MSRP price of the bat.
Type
The types of bats are single-piece alloy (SPA), two-piece composite (TPC), single-piece composite (SPC), hybrid (Hyb.), and wood (Wood). Hybrid bats are made of composite handles and alloy barrles.
Date
The estimated date the bat began distribution.
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