Lewiston’s Todd Cifelli thinks basketball provides a better analogy.

Below-the-rim baseball, anyone?

“I think the home run in high school baseball will be as rare as the dunk in high school basketball,” Cifelli said.

High school and middle school baseball teams across the state will be using new bats in 2012. The bats are required by the National Federation of State High School Associations to improve player safety, particularly pitchers who are vulnerable to screaming line drives hit back to the mound.

The BBCOR (Bat-Ball Coefficient of Restitution) bats are composite bats that are thicker than the aluminum bats high schools have been using for nearly 40 years. The bats are designed to reduce the trampoline effect, which is essentially the speed at which the ball comes off the bat. Batted balls do not exit off the bat with the same velocity or travel as far as they did off the old aluminum bats.

The first noticeable change with the BBCOR bats is the sound they make. The “ping” that aluminum bats make is virtually gone, replaced by a “thud” or “thwack” more reminiscent of wood bats.

Hitters are also noticing the bat’s “sweet spot” is smaller and deader. The ball still jumps off the bat, but without the same explosion.

So far, the change has met mixed reviews. In preseason games, hitters are seeing balls that used to clear the fence die well shy of the warning track. Some players are having a hard time adjusting to the more top-heavy BBCOR bat and converting to the tools their fathers and grandfathers used.

Leavitt coach Dave Bochtler understands the emphasis on safety but isn’t enamored with the new bats, comparing them to an incompetent umpire.

“I don’t really like him, but as long as he’s equally bad for the other team, I’m OK with it,” he said. “It’s a level playing field.”

It’s a more level playing field for those who prefer wood bats. Several players may opt for wood now that the gap between them and the regulation bats has narrowed.

Some players experimented with the BBCOR bats last year, but using those or wood bats instead of the aluminum bats in a game was, according to Cifelli, “like bringing a butter knife to a gun fight.”

Lisbon bought some BBCOR bats last year, in part to phase them in and cushion the blow to this year’s athletic budget (the bats cost about the same as the old aluminum bats, between $100 and $300). Coach Randy Ridley had his players try the bats in practice to get a head start on the transition this year.

“I think it prepared us mentally as much as anything for this coming year when all of the bats are the same,” Ridley said. “Everybody is still going to deal with the same bats, but I think the ‘Aww’ factor of the ball not jumping off the bats, we won’t have to worry about that so much because we expect it.”

“But,” he added, “if you hit the ball solid, it’s still going to feel right and feel good.”

One of the reasons coaches like the new bats is they place more of an emphasis on hitting mechanics. They don’t reward players for hitting the ball off the handle or the end of the bat like aluminum bats do.

“You’ve got to learn to hit and hit right,” Ridley said. “I think a lot of those little bloops are going to be what they should be now, which is outs, and not just barely getting out of the infield and dropping in for base hits.”

“There’s no forgiveness (swinging at pitches) inside,” St. Dom’s coach Bob Blackman said. “With the old bats, you could take one on the fist and serve it up over the infield. You’ve got no shot with these.”

Coaches and players like taking those kind of advantages away from hitters.

“They can’t hit it quite so far. It all comes down to hitters mechanics. Kids will say ‘This bat stinks,’ but it all comes down to them not having the right swing and mechanics,” Gray-New Gloucester pitcher Kyle Nielsen said. “Anybody can hit it out of the park, even with the BBCOR, with the right swing.”

“If guys have to earn it more at the plate, that’s good for everybody,” Bochtler said.

The NCAA required BBCOR bats for the 2011 season and saw a noticeable reduction in offense.

Division I teams averaged 5.58 runs per game, dropping the mark below 6 per game for the first time since 1977 (5.83).

Home runs left parks at an average of .52 per team per game in 2011 compared with .94 in 2010 and the peak 1.06 in 1998. By comparison, in the last year of the wood bat, 1973, the average was .42.

Batting average dropped to .282, the lowest mark since 1976.

If, as Cifelli predicts, the long ball goes the way of the slam dunk, teams will alter their strategy. Pitching and defense will be at more of a premium, and “small ball” tactics such as bunting and the hit-and-run will become a more prominent part of the game.

“I think you’re going to see a lot more bunting because one run is going to mean a lot in these games,” said Blackman, who has utilized “small ball” to great success at St. Dom’s, winning four Class C titles in the last seven years.

If that’s the case, baseball purists will rejoice.

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