Bat Lab

We compression tested the most popular fastpitch softball bats of 2019. Below are result summaries and videos. All bats were tested brand new in wrapper with no hits on them.

UPDATE!!! All 2018 CF-ZEN Bats Are Now Approved For Play!. They have been released from suspension. Get yours here. The 2018 DeMarini CF ZEN (-10) 2 3/4" (WTDXCBZ-18) was approved by USSSA in 2017. In 2018 USSSA made slight changes to their testing protocol. When they re-tested the 2018 CF ZEN, all sizes...

   While testing all of the BBCOR bats for 2018, I came across a new bat this year that really impressed us. The Marucci F5 is a one-piece alloy BBCOR bat priced at a very low $149.99. I didn't expect too much out of this bat because of the low price...

Lizard Skins is the official bat grip of Major league Baseball. Here we show you a few ways that we like to install them. We show you how to install for a right-handed batter, left-handed batter and even a special trick for installing on an AXE handled bat. Enjoy! And remember, Lizard...

What is changing with the implementation of the USABat Standard? Similar to the BBCOR standard that was implemented in 2011 for College and High School, the new USABat Standard will create wood-like performance in youth baseball bats. Like the College and High School BBCOR tests, the USABat standard is based...

Ball Exit Speed measures the speed of the ball as it comes off the bat. This is often confused with Bat Speed, which is the speed of the bat as it's swung. In order to achieve the highest possible Ball Exit Speed, perfect contact on the sweet spot of the...

Compression testing measures the amount of pressure it takes to compress the barrel of a bat 1/4". The less pressure it takes to compress the bat, the easier it is to achieve maximum trampoline effect when the ball makes contact with the bat. Composite barreled bats will get easier to compress...

This year at 99BATS, we decided to take all of the most popular models that we carry and compare them side by side. Today we're going to take a look at the size of the sweet spot on the barrels. As you can see from the picture above, we lined...