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Over the years, we’ve tracked the bat usage of NCAA baseball and fastpitch teams. Our results are below.
Many college-level programs have agreements with major sports brands for access to equipment. Usually, the players are not required to swing and use a specific brand, but they are highly encouraged by getting free gear and access to the manufacturer’s lineup. As such, you’ll see many colleges swinging the same brand.
In short, please take these outcomes with a grain of salt. These are often as much marketing plays by manufacturers as they are a commentary on the bat’s effectiveness.
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There are many ways to slice and dice the data of the CWS baseball bat usage. Ultimately, it’s probably best for us to give access to the data and do with it what you will. If you use the data, please reference and link to this page. We will give you our hot takes on the data below, but there are many ways to look at it.
One way to consider bat usage is to see the model most often used among the 144 at-bats of the 16 teams that made the super regionals. Of course, this suffers from sponsorship bias as many of these schools are required to hit with certain brands. In any case, the bat usage is as follows.
Does this make The Goods the best BBCOR bat? Not categorically, but it certainly doesn’t mean nothing (sic).
You can also see the market share. But, take extreme caution here. Most teams are sponsored, so this is more a comment on marketing than on player preferences.
We also tracked the championship game. These bats were a bit different than these folks used in the Super Regionals, but about the same. In any case, it’s fun to see the bat’s that made the big dance.
The Marucci CAT X Connect is the bat that is almost 100% of the LSU lineup. Jordan Thompson swings the 2018 Posey28 Pro Metal (a metal bat that looks like wood).
Florida, a DeMarini school, has some weird symmetry with the first five hitters with The Goods and the final three with a single-piece alloy.
We’ve tracked NCAA bat usage for a long time and have never seen a wood bat used in the Super Regionals. But Rikuu Nishida used one in his first at-bat versus Oral Roberts. Note: That was not the color he used— he used a green/black one, but the idea is the same. It’s a clear disadvantage to using a wood bat as swing weight and barrel size will never be able to match what you can do in alloy and composite, hence the reason no one else does it. But mad respect for Rikuu for getting it done.
South Carolina appears to be one of the few teams that does not have a bat sponsorship. It is fun, therefore, to see what bats they choose. There’s a good selection here, and the Voodoo One in 2024 is an interesting find, too. That means they at least have access to DeMarini, although the rest of the team isn’t ‘required’ to swing them. Who knows. In any case, we love the Maxum on this list too.
Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles appear to be an Easton school. Dustin Dickerson also has one of the oldest bats in the 2023 Super Regionals: the 2014 Easton XL1. The other notable expectations are the Maxum and the Fuze 360. Both are great bats, with some play from the middle of the lineup.
Indiana State, one of the few non-P5 teams to make the super regionals for 2023, has a great assortment of DeMarini’s with a couple of Sluggers in the mix. In terms of color appeal, the graphic looks great. Seeing a few of the older (2020) The Goods in there at 1, 3, and 6 is fun, too.
Always exciting to see what TCU is swinging ad they are a marquee team for the biggest brand in the business (TCU). If anyone will get some early bat access, it is these guys (especially considering Vanderbilt is out). In any case, it’s fun to see the 2024 DeMarini Voodoo One rear its head. TCU has a real chance to go deep.
Virginia is a Rawlings school, if you couldn’t tell. We always like to see bat companies drop in some new sticks for their elite players to use. Here you can see Ehtan O’Donnell with the new Clout AI in BBCOr and Henry Godbout with the new Mach AI. We haven’t seen these in any stores, so we believe these to be in the pre-release stage. Although we don’t know, our guess is that the Clout replaces the Velo in our minds while the Mach AI replaces the 5150. But, we won’ know more until Rawlings releases more information.
Duke looks to have some liberty on what bat they use, most using a Wilson umbrella-type bat (DeMarini/Slugger). But the Marucci CAT X looks great in that almost all-Wilson line up.
Every once in a while you’ll come across a team like this where every bat is the same. It’s like they know something the rest of us don’t…
The 2023 Stanford Cardinals baseball team has a strong lineup of players, each with their preferred bat. Below is a list of the players and their preferred bat usage for the season:
Louisville Slugger is a popular choice among the team, with the Omaha and Atlas models used the most frequently.
Arkansans, apparently, can use any bat brand. So, it’s fun to look. Two hybrids (the Marucci CAT X Connect and the Select PWR) and seven single-piece alloys exist in the lineup. Of note, the least popular single piece (according to the internet), The Solo from Slugger, is the most popular among one of the best teams in the business. Things that make you go hmmm…
Slugger dominates the lineup of Wake Forest. That is likely due to a contract, although the bats are plenty good. Lots of 2023 Select PWRs as well as some throwback 517 Omahas.
LSU is a Marucci School. Their lineup looks like this:
The CAT X Connect is a heavy swinging bat made for big hitters, so it’s no surprise these bats are all over the place in the #1 ranked Tiger’s offense. The CAT X is a light-swinging bat, so it’s a bit surprising that Paxton Kling likes it so, but he’s a great hitter, so don’t fix what is not broken.
We don’t see our favorite bat in the lineup (the 2023 Marucci CAT X Composite). That’s because bigger hitters don’t like the light swing and smooth smash of the Composite. However, younger hitters in BBCOR do.
The Tennessee Vols for 2023 is a Slugger school. As expected, the swing heavier alloy barrel bats. Most (7/9) prefer a two-piece hybrid with an endload in the Select PWR series. Surprisingly, the big hitter Zen Denton uses a lighter swinging single-piece alloy (as does the 9-hole hitter).
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