Arctic Blast No Match for the Blasts from the New DeMarini RD28

PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: KEN VANBOGAERT
Featured in SSUSA Softball Report
K
en VanBogaert won the Home Run Derby at Softball
Magazine’s Spring Training in Cocoa Beach, Florida. He
topped a national field on March 14 to earn his second
title in the event’s five-year history.
VanBogaert is a member of the Roberts Construction softball
team out of Madison, Wisconsin where the team plays in the
Senior Softball 55 Major division. Despite coming from the snowbound state of Wisconsin, and facing a field of much younger players including his own son Brett, VanBogaert rose to the challenge.
And rise he did. “Bogey” hit five home runs in twelve swings to
secure a berth
in the finals.
The top four finishers plus ties
moved ahead,
and took another round of
twelve swings
to launch
Dudley Thunder
Advance softballs over the
310-foot fences.
In that round,
VanBogaert hit
seven out of
twelve pitches
to force a headto-head playoff
for the title.
Seeing another
twelve pitches,
VanBogaert
dialed it up a
notch, this time
hitting nine
home runs. In
his three
rounds, as the pressure increased, so did his performance, hitting
five, then seven, and then nine home runs. All of the players in the
contest hit with a controlled group of stock bats provided by the
event’s equipment sponsors.
The contest came during the first of two sessions on back-toback weeks in March. Softball Magazine’s Spring Training gave
two groups of about 65 recreational players of various ages and
abilities the opportunity to spend three full days at a four-field
complex. The players sharpened their skills by participating in batting practice, hitting contests, defensive drills, scrimmages, and by
receiving one-on-one instruction from well-known Major level players. Hot cooked lunches and cold drinks were provided on site to
maximize the players’ time on the diamonds.
The overall itinerary of Softball Magazine’s Spring Training was
confined to a single work-week with travel days on Wednesday
and Sunday, and field reservations on Thursday-Friday-Saturday,
followed by a banquet Saturday night. Some players brought their
families, wives, or girlfriends, and arrived on Florida’s Space Coast
a day or two early to make a full vacation out of it. For more
details go to http://www.softballspringtraining.com.
VanBogaert’s success is no surprise. He is the producer of several successful softball dvds, including “Learn To Hit a Softball 400
Feet” and “Blasting Bombs, Spraying Singles, and Unleashing
Rotational Power.” He is also the force behind the website,
www.sportstechnique.com, which provides “rapid athletic improvement through cutting edge coaching.” No wonder all those guys
half his age couldn’t keep up.
Congratulations Ken!
Arctic Blast No Match for the Blasts from the New
DeMarini RD28 1.20 Softball Bat; 1,000 bats will be
made as a tribute to legendary founder Ray DeMarini.
Sparks, NV: Neither the April
rain, sleet nor even snow, prevented the DeMarini
Ultimate Softball show from
traveling to the new allturf Golden Eagle
Regional Sports Park in
Sparks, Nevada for the
Manufacturer’s
Challenge. Armando
Acosta and Brett Helmer created this tournament as a unique
event where the manufacturers supply all bats. A different bat
company sponsored each field and the DeMarini field was flat-out
rocking with the debut of the RD28 1.20.
The RD28 1.20 is a tribute to the man that started it all, the legendary Ray DeMarini.
Ray started the company in the late 1980s while on his way to
becoming widely known as the maniacal King of Softball. Ray was
quick to realize that factory bats were far superior to the bats that
were available to the everyday player. That realization was the
impetus for DeMarini to invent and build softball’s first customized
high tech double wall bat for the masses. Always inspired by our
past while continually pushing towards the future, the RD28 1.20
is built with end-to-end PitchBlack Stacked composite that maximizes sweet spot and handle performance. It is a powerful salute
to innovation and dedication. With a limited production run of only
1,000, each individually numbered bat delivers the insane performance that honors the DeMarini legend.
PitchBlack is a DeMarini exclusive composite developed with
22% more carbon, with no fillers, for the tightest weave tolerance
and thinnest walls providing maximum sweet spot, performance
and toughness. The next generation of DoubleWall, Stacked
Composite optimizes multiple walls separated by DeMarini Power
Ply for the most power on off-center hits. The newly developed
Skullcap finishes the stick off in an appropriately menacing manner. The RD28 1.20 is available in 26, 27, 28 and 30 OZ. and is
approved for USSSA, NSA, ISA and ISF play. It is not approved for
ASA play.
The weekend kicked off with the Home-Run Derby Showcase
which matched the top six qualifiers in a team competition against
major players from the manufacturers.
The evening was cold, sub-thirty degrees, but the bats were
hot. DeMarini was well represented on both squads as Dan “Dirty”
Sanchez and Willie Brown represented DeMarini as major players
and two of the qualifiers were also DeMarini Factory Hitters; Kevin
Pirkey and Chris Larsen. Larsen put on the display of the night,
leading the qualifiers by driving one laser after another deep into
the night, besting all but one of the major players. The major players finished on top but by the end of the derby everyone knew
without a doubt that the RD28 1.20 had arrived.
“This is an absolutely awesome event for manufacturer and
player alike. We get to take in direct feedback from the players all
weekend long and they get the chance to try sticks that they may
not have had the opportunity to swing before. From the comments
that I have heard, we have really opened some eyes here to what
DeMarini has to offer in 2009. I would like to thank Armando and
Brett for the invite and the hospitality. We very much look forward
to returning in future years,” said DeMarini National Slowpitch
Manager, Jeff LeRiche.
The Sparks, Nevada Manufacturer Challenge will be featured in
an upcoming episode of the DeMarini Ultimate Softball Show.
Catch the latest episode of the DeMarini Ultimate Softball Show
at: demariniultimatesoftball.com - look for DeMarini Sports on
Facebook!
Softball Magazine Issue 3 2009 • Page 41