Two Iowa conference baseball coaches feel increased costs may be the reasonthe league will switch back to aluminum bats next season. The Iowaconference and Midwest conference were among a select few league’s whichvoted to move to wood bats for this season. Upper Iowa coach Rick Hellerwent into the season as an advocate for aluminum bats but says he has grownto like the wood bat and the way it has changed the game.Heller says the N-C-A-A will study the issue during the off-season.Heller says the deciding factor may be the increased costs associated withwood bats and the amount a team has to purchase for the season.Wartburg coach Joel Holst says the newer aluminum bats were seen as apossible safety hazard but says the switch to wood bats may have beenunecessary.Holst says the wood bat has changed the game and coaches have used the buntgame more and he has seen more effort to try and manufacture runs.Holst says so far the Wartburg program has seen about a two-thousand dollarincrease in the budget for bats.
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