As a reminder, many rules that we are mandated to follow come from USA Baseball, ASA or PONY Softball and Baseball Inc. Recently, PONY decided to fall in line with USA baseball for things like age cutoff, pitch count (baseball), bat standards as well as other rules. I recently heard that your League President, and/or the UIC are being blamed by members for these changes. The only rules we make are the local rules and those are written an amended by a valley-wide committee of baseball and softball officials. If you are interested in seeing a rule changed or updated, you may use the rules amendment 

A LETTER FROM USA BASEBALL TO PONY SOFTBALL AND BASEBALL.
To our knowledge, this applies only to baseball. We have not heard anything from the softball directors at PONY.



Dear Abe,

Please be advised that effective immediately, the bat identified as the Easton Ghost X YBB18GX10 30/20 2 5/8” (or the “Easton Ghost X 30/20 5/8” at retail) has been decertified by USA Baseball and is no longer an approved bat under the USABat Standard. This applies to the 30-inch drop 10 variations of the Easton Ghost X only. At the time of this decertification notice, all other lengths and drops of the Easton Ghost X bat remain approved for play.

The Easton Ghost X YBB18GX10 30/20 is pictured below

Official compliance testing determined that the Ghost X 30/20 exceeds the performance limit set by the USABat Standard. Per the USA Baseball Youth Bat Performance Test Protocol as well as our contracts with Easton, these results constitute a non-compliant bat that must be decertified.

Team representatives are asked to check their teams’ bats and withhold these bats from play if their teams are in possession of these bats. League administrators are asked to share this information with their umpires. If a player attempts to use an Easton Ghost X YBB18GX10 30/ompetition, it should be considered an illegal bat and subject to league rules regarding the use of illegal or unapproved bats.

More information on this decertification can be found on USA Baseball’s website at https://usabat.com/decertified-bats/

Easton is required to release a statement regarding this decertification and post information on their website for customers who have purchased the bat. We will share the URL for decertification information on Easton.com as soon as it is available.

Any questions regarding this decertification may be directed to USA Baseball at [email protected].

Any questions regarding returns, refunds, or warranty claims for the Easton Ghost X 30/20 should be directed to Easton at [email protected]

We appreciate your careful attention to this matter. Attached to this note you will find an image of the Easton Ghost X YBB18GX10 30/20 2 5/8” as well as a graphic explaining the decertification that can be used for web and social media content.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Russell Hartford, Mike Gaski, or me.

Sincerely,

Paul Seiler

USA Baseball

Executive Director/CEO