2017 Marucci Pure Fastpitch Review

Comparable Bats

You have no shortage of bats comparable to the 2017 Marucci Pure. As we mentioned above, every major player in the performance softball space has a two-piece composite fastpitch bat with a focus on a balanced swing and an over-sized barrel. Easton, for example, has the MAKO. DeMarini has the CF9. Louisville Slugger is the XENO and LXT Hyper. Worth makes a 2 Legit. There are likely some others.

We often get dizzy deciphering between them all.

If your hope is to find a performance bat, with their accompanying price tag, in the two-piece composite fastpitch market who has a focus on a large barrel and a light swing the Marucci Pure is 100% on that list.

Construction

The Marucci Pure is constructed of two pieces: handle and barrel. Both are composite material. The barrel is as long as they allow in the fastpitch space. It is connected to the handle similar to how the 2017 Marucci CAT Connect does their connection. Which is, the handle screws into the handle. The threaded material making the connection is designed to dissipate vibration between the barrel and handle.

Other companies fuse the two pieces of the bat together somewhat differently with the same intent: minimize hand sting on mishits and encourage a buttery feel on big hits. Our batting cage time confirmed this is true with the Marucci Pure. Their connective design (which they refer to as SDX) does a very good job of producing creamy jacks on dead center hits and dampens vibration on mishits. Better than other performance designs on the market we are not so sure—but as good as anything we’ve tested to date. (And we’ve tested a lot).

Notes: Fastpitch Two-Piece Composite Comparisons

Every serious performance bat company playing in the fastpitch space has a two piece composite designed bat as their flagship stick. Some differences are noted in three areas:

1. Swing weights: Some of these bats have a balance point more towards the hands (often called balanced) while other put the balance point more towards the end cap (often called end-loaded).
2. The length of the barrel is similar in all two-piece performance bats, but the real measure of a bat’s impressiveness is in the performance of the barrel along it’s length. Better bats perform as well outside the middle of the barrel as they do in the dead center of the sweet spot.
3. How a companies fuse the handle and barrel together often differs wildly. Each attempt to dampen sting on mishits while still delivering appropriate energy to the ball through a finely tuned transition.