OMGAA Baseball Families,

A hot topic in baseball this offseason has been bat standards for the organizations our teams participate in.  For the past several years, the USSSA bat stamp has been the prevailing guideline for all 14 and under teams and the BBCOR stamp for 15 and above.  Many national organizations, such as Cal Ripken, Babe Ruth and Little League Baseball have chosen to adopt the new USA Bat Standard.  

The two governing organizations that our teams participated in last year, MBL and MYAS, each decided independently whether to adopt the new USA Bat Standards or continue to follow the USSSA standards.  MBL has adopted the new USA Bat Standards and MYAS has decided to follow the USSSA standards, which have been amended to also accept the USA Stamp.

What does that mean for our members?  Here are some guidelines based on the league your child will participate in this upcoming season:

8 – 9  year old rookie teams – We typically have not had any bat requirements for these leagues and anticipate that remaining the same this year. 

10 – 12 year old house teams – These teams typically have followed the USSSA standard.  We anticipate following USSSA standards once again this year, which would allow players to use bats with either the USSSA 1.15 stamp or the USA stamp.

13 – 15 year old house teams – Last year these teams participated in MYAS’s North Star League which will continue to follow the USSSA standards.  While it has not yet determined which leagues these teams will play in this year, we anticipate following the USSSA standards once again, which would allow players to use bats with either the USSSA 1.15 stamp or the USA stamp.

9 – 14 year old travel teams – These teams participate in both MBL and MYAS sanctioned league play and tournaments.  For all league play, MBT and GSTC state tournament qualifiers, and MBT and GSTC state tournaments bats with the USA stamp is allowed.  In MYAS league play, GSTC qualifier tournaments and GSTC bats with the USSSA stamp will also be allowed.    Bats with the USSSA stamp will NOT be allowed in MBL league play, MBT qualifiers, or the MBT state tournament.

15U travel and 16 – 19 house and travel teams – These teams will continue to follow NFHS rules which allows wood bats or bats with the BBCOR stamp. 

In addition to bat stamps each organization has age level restrictions on length and weight differentials.  For specifics on differentials follow the links below:

MBL:

https://www.mbl.bz/articles/2018-bats-for-mbl-mbt

You can find the approved bat list from USA Baseball at https://usabat.com/  

MYAS:

http://www.myas.org/baseball/gopher-state-baseball-league/gopher-state-baseball-league-resource-center/bat-standards/

12U Pautzke won the Zimmerman Classic tournament this year.  This group of 9 girls played 5 games in one day, going 5-0, to win the Championship.  After sweeping through pool play we were behind 6-4 in the semi-finals going into our last at-bat, and proceeded to score 3 runs to come from behind and win the game.  In the Championship game we never trailed and won it 7-5, clinching not only the tournament title, but also clinching our birth into Nationals!