Florida Gators acclimating to new baseball

The Florida Gators spent most of the fall adjusting to a major change that will affect every team across the country this season.

In 2011 the NCAA got rid of the old aluminum bats and moved to a composite bat that, they hoped, would react more like wood than the aluminum. In the very first season runs dropped to 5.58 per game, the first time the average runs per game had been lower than six since 1977 (5.83). Home runs dropped from .94 per game in 2010 to just .58 the following year.

Changing the bat had a major impact on the offensive side of the game and four years later, the NCAA is making another major change to landscape of college baseball. This season, the NCAA has adopted a new baseball in hopes to change the pitching dominance and balance the game.

“We received overwhelming support from the baseball coaches around the country,” committee chairman Dennis Farrell said in a conference call last November. “We look at the baseball coaches as the practitioners of this sport that would tell us whether the flat-seamed baseball would increase the offensive output that we feel the sport is in need of at this point.”

The ball itself doesn’t change in size; rather the laces have been lowered into the ball. The old ball’s seams were .048 inches and the new ball will be .031, mimicking the seams that are used in baseballs in the minor leagues — the only difference now being the core of the baseball. The lowered laces are said to create less drag on the ball when it’s in the air, allowing it to ravel an extra 10-20 feet.

The baseballs arrived prior to the fall season. The change, on paper, seems minimal but to pitchers who quickly grow accustomed to a certain feeling when holding and throwing a baseball, the change took some time to get used to.

“We used them all fall,” Friday night starter Logan Shore said. “We got them, I think in August, so when we came back I had them right away. So the adjustment time was a couple months.”

But will the baseballs help hitters like the NCAA intended them to? Now that the pitchers have adjusted to the new height of the seems and feel of the ball they’re taking advantage of it.

“The new ball has helped the pitchers with velocity and just a little more break and bite on their breaking balls,” junior Richie Martin said. Kevin O’Sullivan and several of the pitchers have also noted that the velocity has picked up as well.

The NCAA wanted to make the game more balanced but rather than outright switching to the minor league ball completely, they made a new ball. Until we see how the ball plays we won’t know who has the advantage. Two-way player A.J. Puk has had the opportunity to throw the new ball a lot. Puk is projected to be the Saturday or Sunday starter for the Gators this season.

“It’s tough. I mean, pitching wise, I’ve always enjoyed lower seams throwing it, you get more movement,” he said. “But hitting I heard you get about 15 more feet so that’s nice too.”

When pressed to pick one, Puk said he’d go with the pitchers still getting the upper hand with the new ball.

Florida will kick off their season in less than two weeks when they host Rhode Island and the new ball will be on display for all to see. Hopefully it brings offense back to Gainesville.

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC