Like a lot of teams, Vandalia Butler High School baseball players routinely swung from their heels during batting practice. The Aviators wanted to go deep and bash home runs.

No more.

“There definitely is not the same pop on the bat,” said longtime Butler head coach Trent Dues. “I can tell in batting practice. We used to have guys launching (balls) out and that doesn’t happen anymore.”

There’s a good reason for that, and not because Butler graduated its heavy hitters.

Following the NCAA’s lead last year, high school players throughout the country have been mandated by the National Federation of State High School Associations to use a modified version of the popular metal bat this season.

Essentially, the metal bat now responds more closely to top-end wood bats.

That has quickly changed the game, most coaches agree, in a good way.

Home run derby is out, as is that familiar “ping” of a batted ball. Bunting, hitting behind runners, single-digit games and a wood-like “thud” are in.

“It definitely is going to change high school baseball,” said Dues, who took the Aviators to a five-game trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C., last week. “Your good hitters are still going to hit. It just takes away some of the jam-shot hits over the infield. It’s still aluminum. It still jumps off the bat better than wood, but it’s not the same as the old aluminum.”

On the defensive

Like all infielders and pitchers, Troy senior Nick Antonides appreciates that noticeable difference. A third baseman, Antonides saw an opposing pitcher suffer a broken jaw from a batted ball two years ago.

Last season, Troy JV pitcher Nick Sanders had a ball hit his forehead.

Although just milliseconds of a difference, that means everything to those closest to home plate.

“Ground balls have definitely slowed down a lot,” Antonides said. “You have more reaction time now.”

The fear factor of surrendering a barrage of home runs also has been tempered. One- and two-run leads are more meaningful, especially late in games. That enables coaches to stay with pitchers longer.

“It goes back to a more traditional style of baseball,” Springfield coach Rob Cassell said.

“You’ve got to move runners over, hit behind them. It adds more dynamics to the game. There’s more coaching, more strategy. You’re not waiting on that home run.”

What’s the difference?

BBCOR is now as popular in baseball lingo as RBI. The five-letter acronym stands for Bat-Ball Coefficient of Restitution. What all that means is, unlike other seasons, a light-hitting player won’t be able to go yard as often, if at all.

Scientifically, it’s a measure of performance that means a batted ball hit by a metal bat won’t travel as far in the air as its predecessor, the BESR (ball exit speed ratio). All legal bats are stamped with the BBCOR insignia on the barrel. BESR bats are illegal to use in a game.

“If you barely missed the ball with the other bats, (the ball) still might have went out (for a home run),” said Troy senior first baseman Nathan Helke, a 6-foot-6, 270-pounder who has launched three over-the-fence homers this season. “These definitely won’t.”

According to Kyle McNeely, the Ohio High School Athletic Association director of development for baseball officials/umpires, BESR bats were a composite weave of metal that easily and quickly broke down. That enabled a “trampoline effect” that acted like booster power to batted balls.

That led to a ban on composite bats, from Little League and college in 2011 and finally high school this season.

With the BBCOR, “the intent is you can determine how ‘hot’ you want the bat to be,” without the bat breaking down and enabling more power than its verification, McNeely said.

When did it start?

Metal bats were introduced to baseball at all levels except Major League Baseball in 1974. The intent was to produce a bat that had more longevity than wood bats, which often would break.

Metal bats increasingly became more lethal. Their cost also rose. Initially about the same price as a Louisville Slugger wood bat, metal bats now go for $130-$400.

Composite bats had such an effect on college baseball that it was dubbed “Gorilla Ball” in the mid-1990s. The opposite of small ball, in which teams bunt, steal and advance one base at a time for runs, gorilla ball fancies home run hitters.

The term gorilla ball has its roots in the College World Series. It was the late 1980s. The Omaha (Neb.) Zoo was located down the right-field line of Rosenblatt Stadium, site of the CWS. The landing spot of many home runs was the ape house.

“The gorillas went nuts,” recalled McNeely, “and the name stuck.”

Change in the game

That drop in bat pop also means outfielders can be more daring.

“We’re moving our guys in,” first-year Middletown coach Rick Blyberg said. “You can tell that everybody is trying to take the base hits away because the ball doesn’t carry as far.”

Most, but not all, area conferences have seen a drop in team batting averages. The Greater Catholic League North had the greatest drop, from .320 at the end of last season to .261 this past week, a difference of .059 from the combined batting averages of Alter, Chaminade Julienne, Carroll and Fenwick.

The Greater Miami Conference (minus .017) and Greater Western Ohio Conference (.016) also have had drops in hitting. Not all of that can be attributed to graduated players, star pitchers and quality opponents.

Coach Ray Hamilton of defending Division I state champ Lakota East also has noticed the change.

“You’re back to X’s and O’s,” he said. “Now, it’s maybe I’ve got to listen to old coach a little more.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2381 or mpendleton@ DaytonDailyNews.com.