Written by Mark Bailey
The market for youth bats isn’t as well established as the one for adult bats, and that can make it hard to find a good bat for little league games and the like. Fortunately, Easton has come up with the Easton Beast Hyperlite to fill that very need.
I was a bit reluctant to believe all the manufacturer’s claims because this is a little league bat being described as an MLB-class product, but after taking it out for a test run, I was pleasantly surprised. Let’s take a closer look at what makes this youth bath from Easton so great.
Firstly, let’s check out the bat in action:
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Little League Certified
If you’re getting this bat as a gift for a young ballplayer, then you want to make sure that it’s approved for play. There are far too many horror stories of young players receiving a gift bat that wasn’t approved for their league and getting banned as a result.
Fortunately, the Easton 2019 Beast Hyperlite is approved for play not only in the little league but also in a variety of other leagues.
ATAC Barrel
One of the things that makes Easton bats so special is the fact that they use ATAC construction on all their products. This stands for advanced thermal alloy construction. It is truly on the cutting-edge of bat design. The ATAC barrel on this bat brings the optimal blend of performance and durability that you’d only see in MLB-quality bats.
Why not take the performance of the big leagues down to the little leagues? After all, youth players are our future, so we should be giving them the best equipment to hone their skills with. You’ll never have to worry about your bat snapping when it’s built with an ATAC barrel.
Warranty
When people buy a bat at this price point—especially for youth players—they want to know that their investment is going to be protected by a manufacturer’s warranty. The first thing that I want to note is the fact that bats of this quality that Easton puts out aren’t going to snap anytime soon. Thus, the warranty is moot.
While you likely won’t even get to use the warranty, it’s always nice to see one as it shows that the manufacturer has enough trust in their product to provide one. The Easton Beast Hyperlite carries a full one-year warranty from Easton. I’ll tell you right now that it isn’t going to make a difference, but if it makes you feel better, then there you go.
Lizard Skins
Of course, Easton bats wouldn’t be complete without the trademarked lizard skin grips that the company has been using on its latest releases. They provide an ergonomic feeling, allowing you to swing for hours without cramping up.
The robust grip ensures that your hand will never slip. Being able to firmly grasp the bat in your hand will make it far easier to swing with intent, accuracy, and power. Put everything you’ve got into your swings, knowing that you won’t have to worry about it slipping out of your hands.
Balanced
This bat is balanced rather than end-loaded. What’s the difference, you might ask? Well, as the name would imply, balanced bats have their weight evenly distributed throughout the entire course of the construction. In contrast, end-loaded bats have more weight at the end of the bat. There are pros and cons to each one, so I’m going to try to go over all of them in an objective manner.
First up are balanced bats like the Easton 2019 Beast Hyperlite. The fact that they have their weight spread out over the entire surface means that you’ll be able to generate very high swing speeds without losing any accuracy upon contact. This is why contact hitters generally prefer balanced bats. End-loaded bats do have their merits too, though. They have more material in the hitting zone, meaning that they can generate a lot of force.
That being said, they feel heavier to swing and thus are mostly used by power hitters rather than contact hitters. When you’re just honing your skills—like you’d be doing in the youth league—it’s generally better to use a balanced bat since it will allow you to refine your hand-eye coordination and accuracy. That being said, if your kid is the next Babe Ruth, then giving them an end-loaded bat for their birthday won’t do them any harm either.
One-Piece Construction
I often get asked why it even matters if a bat is made out of one piece or two pieces. Well, there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. When a bat is made out of one piece, it will retain all the power that you put into it. In contrast, two-piece bats tend to lose some of their power because they flex.
You might wonder why two-piece bats still exist then. Well, some contact hitters with below-average power favor two-piece bats because they create a whip effect that increases their swing speed.
That being said, those with average or above-average swing speeds can generally produce enough power on their own and thus favor a one-piece bat that won’t lose any of the power during the swing. Seeing as this is a balanced bat and thus will already help you produce pretty fast swings, I commend Easton’s decision to make the Easton Beast Hyperlite a one-piece bat so that the wielder’s power is fully retained.
Live Experience
To test this bat fully, I took it to the ballpark. Of course, relying on my own testing alone wouldn’t be very fair, seeing as I’m not a youth player—I’m 28, and those days are long gone! (Editors Note: Actually, at the time of publishing, I’ll have hit 29; where does the time go?!). That being said, I wanted to see how the bat felt. Don’t worry, I also had some youth players test it out later in the day, and I’ll get to that in a bit.
The first thing I noticed was that it didn’t have as much pop as the 2018 version. It did hit hard and far, though, exceeding my expectations in that department. There was a youth game scheduled for the same day. I asked one of the players if he’d want to try the bat out during the game, and he eagerly agreed.
Needless to say, their team won, and he told me that he had never gotten that many hits in previous games. I guess the Easton’s accuracy lives up to the hype. I asked him if he would buy it, and he said that he definitely would after saving up for a few months. That’s the biggest drawback with the Easton Beast Hyperlite: the price.
You can’t really nitpick at its performance since it’s solid, but the $100-range is a bit desolate when it comes to youth bats. That being said, I know that it’s more than worth the money for families who can afford it. Hopefully, the next line of Beast Hyperlite bats will be a bit cheaper though, just so more youth players can actually use it.
Verdict
To put it simply, this bat brings the performance of the MLB to youth leagues and lets young players hone their accuracy while still getting power hits off. It exceeded my expectations by a long shot, and I’d definitely recommend that people buy this for all their youth league needs.
Where To Buy The Easton Beast Hyperlite?
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