The composite baseball bat controversy in the Marmonte League is over.

During an all-league meeting on May 18 at Simi Valley High, Marmonte varsity baseball coaches elected to push a ban on composite bats.

The following week, league principals voted to implement the ban beginning in 2011.

Both votes were unanimous, according to Simi Valley athletic director and head varsity baseball coach Matt La Belle.

“We won’t be playing with composite bats next year,” La Belle said. “And we’re going to present something to the CIF body—assuming the wood-bat rule doesn’t go into effect—to eliminate all composite bats in CIF next year.”

Composite bats, often made from carbon, glass and Kevlar fibers embedded in a plastic resin, are stronger and lighter than their metal counterparts and, tests have shown, produce increased velocity on batted balls.

Composites can also be altered with greater ease than aluminum or wood bats.

The controversial bats were banned by the NCAA prior to the start of the 2010 season, and the Marmonte, as reported in the Simi Valley Acorn’s May 14 issue, was looking to follow suit.

Last week, in a CIF-Southern Section Division 1 quarterfinal playoff game between Royal and San Clemente, a Royal player’s composite bat was checked multiple times by umpires following San Clemente complaints that the bat didn’t sound right.

The game, won by Royal, was protested, citing the use of an illegal bat. The CIF ruled, however, that there was insufficient evidence to support those claims.

In further composite bat news, ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” recently interviewed Thousand Oaks head coach Jimmy Stueve for a piece on the subject.