The 2015 Division I baseball tournament will be the welcoming site of the new flat-seam baseball. Resulting from a lack of offense since the use of BBCOR bats, the Division I Baseball Committee will go ahead with the decision after coaches accepted the standard unanimously.
“When we went to BBCOR, what we found was it took too much offense out of the game,” University of Oregon baseball head coach George Horton said.
Since 2011, when BBCOR was adopted in college baseball, there has been an extreme decline in offense, especially home runs. On the biggest stage in college baseball, the College World Series, home runs have hit a severe low. During the 2013 series, through 14 total games, there were only three home runs hit, the fewest since 1966. Batters also scored the fewest runs in 2013 since 1973, the year before aluminum bats and designated hitters were introduced.
“The college game definitely needs a little bit more offense,” said UO starting pitcher Cole Irvin.
After several months of testing at the Sport Science lab at Washington State University, the change to a flat seam baseball will allow the ball to travel farther because of less drag. When hurdled out of a pitching machine that averaged 95 mph, a 25-degree angle and a 1,400 rpm spin rate, the flat seam ball traveled around 387 feet, 20 feet farther than raised seam baseballs.
Irvin is excited about the rule change.
“I have a lot more run or sharpness to my pitches and I can command that a lot better,” Irvin said. “But there is a lot more from a pitching standpoint that a pitcher might gain, in terms of run and he might get a little more velocity.”
With a flat seam ball, pitchers can better control each pitch, because the lower seams will cause less “run” or “tail” on the ball.
“Being able to have a sharp pitch, like the slider, was very nice especially with that ball (flat seam ball). On the other hand, on curve ball it’s going to come down a lot sharper. Instead of it being more of a loopy strike pitch, it might turn into something that’s sharp strikeout, command-able pitch,” Irvin said.
The Pac-12 conference has had great success in recent years, even with BBCOR bats and raised seam balls.
“The University of Oregon hasn’t won a national championship yet, but our conference, the Pac-12 conference, with BBCOR and the ball the way it is, has won the last two national championships and four out of the last eight,” Horton said.
Low seam balls will allow for more offense and overall fan excitement (except for those fans who love a 2-1 type of game), as well as more excitement for the players.
“I’m ready for the ball,” Cole Irvin said.
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