Customer Reviews

Easton SRV5 Salvo Slow-Pitch Softball Bat

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The purpose of my review is two-fold--both to give you a sense of this bat (Easton Salvo) and to to help you make a good decision on a bat, whatever you choose. The Salvo is my favorite bat.

I purchased an Easton SRV5 "Salvo", 26 oz bat. This bat is appropriate for players ranging from full sized "big guy" types to 110 lb women players. I can hit bombs with it. The weighting and pop of the bat have allowed women on our team to get nice line drives to the outfield. If you are a "beast", or have played semi-pro ball, or your friends affectionately call you "meat", you may want to move up to the 28 oz or 30 oz versions of this bat. The 26 oz version is quite adequate to drive the ball 300 feet from a standard slow pitch.

There is little real information out there about bats, especially considering how much they cost. I started looking at composites because I felt like a Luddite hitting with my old aluminum bats. Looking around my league (a relatively laid back co-ed rec league), it is surprising how many people are hitting with $200 to $400 composite/hybrid bats. I bought the bat at a local store because I personally found it hard to figure out which bat is the best without actually swinging the darn things. I put my review on Amazon, because you may have a hard time finding this bat by just shopping.

Bats currently have many specific markings on them that seemed impenetrable to me.

Most bats have two key marks on them.
1. BPF = 1.20
2. ASA certified (ASA 2000, ASA 2004, or ASA 2009) and/or some other association USSSA, ISF, NSA,

These are the same on super cheap bats and on expensive composite bats and don't really tell you much about how the bat will perform, except that it meets some standard--more in a second.

Why composite?
The main reason to purchase a composite bat is that the performance generally will be better than the best aluminum bats. This has been shown experimentally by folks such as Prof. Daniel Russell at Kettering University, the Sports Science Laboratory at Washington State University, and there is even information on this on the Lance Armstrong's "Livestrong" foundation website (I have no idea why they care about softball bats).

Back to the Salvo... It also has the following markings: 1) barrel 12 in. 2) USSSA 1.20 BPF, 3) NSA Approved, 4) ISA Approved, 5) 98 MPH, 6) ASA Certified 2004, and 7) ISF 2005 Certified. Also, the bat is covered by two patents--look these up if you want the nitty gritty on the bat. USPTO 6,866,598 "Ball bat with a strain energy optimized barrel" and USPTO 6,764,419 "Composite baseball bat having an interface section in the bat barrel"

Q. Why so many darn markings?
A1. To keep people (mostly pitchers) from getting killed. Literally.
A2. There are many different associations trying to control bat performance.

If you play high end softball, many pitchers wear the equivalent of a catcher's or hockey goalie's mask. This is to keep pitchers from getting hit and injured by batted balls. The pitcher's mound is ~45 feet away from the plate. A ball hit at 98 mph (which very good hitters can do) reaches the pitcher in about 0.3 seconds, very close to the fastest possible human response time. It is possible to make bats that hit balls much faster than 98 mph. To control this, softball and baseball associations require that bat performance be measured and that conforming bats be marked appropriately. That said, there are really only two major standard out there.

1. ASA 2004, 98 mph performance-The ASTM F2219 test = "ball-in, ball-out"
The ASA test is meant to simulate the exit speed of an approved softball that is thrown at 25 mph and hit by a (very good) batter swinging the bat at 85 mph. To do this, they fire a ball at a stationary bat at 110 mph (= 85 mph + 25 mph) and measure the exit speed (a "ball-in, ball-out" test). The maximum allowable exit speed is 98 mph. The ASA 2004 stamp means that the bat gives 98 mph OR LESS in the exit speed test. So, low and high performing bats all get the same ASA stamp if they pass this test. I play in an ASA league, so I needed an ASA approved bat. The Salvo is ASA approved.

Easton is unclear what "98 mph performance" means. It implies that the Salvo gives a 98 mph exit speed in the ASA test, since they make a non-ASA bat (Easton Synergy Tri-Zone SCN18) that is not ASA certified and lists a "100 mph performance" mark.

2. BPF 1.20--Currently, the standard for USSSA, ISF, NSA, and ISA-The ASTM F1890 test = "ball in, bat out"
BPF is supposed to measure the springiness of the bat. The actual calculation is pretty complicated and is covered on the WSU website. Again, a ball is fired at a stationary bat, but this time the rebound of the bat and ball are measured.

The ASA standard seems harder to meet than BPF = 1.20--there are many BPF 1.20 certified bats that do not meet the ASA 2004 standard. Most peer reviewed work seems to prefer the ball-in ball-out test as being more realistic. Also, the ASA is now working to test bats that have been broken in rather than new bats.

Breaking in a composite bat improves its performance.
The performance of composite bats gets better as they are used. After somewhere between 500 and 1000 batted balls, the composite will have become less brittle and more elastic. This flexibility helps spring the ball off the bat better and results in faster batted balls. You can break in a bat by using it, or there appears to be a whole cottage industry of artificially breaking in bats using specialized vises with rollers.

There is also an industry of "juicing" bats by putting them in a lathe to reduce weight and improve springiness. I will suffice to say this is a bad and actually dangerous idea.

Field testing the Salvo
Went out last weekend and hit standard Rawlings ASA approved 12" balls off a stationary tee. I routinely could hit shots that I measured >260 feet. From a pitched ball, these would be significantly farther. I was pretty amazed. Really.

Cons? The knob is really small. I taped the end to make it fatter so I wouldn't lose my grip and could swing harder.

What Weight? Can you bench 300 lbs? If not, the 26 oz bat will be great. Lighter weight = Faster swing speed = faster ball exit speed = longer hits. If you are huge, get the bigger bat (28 or 30 oz).

p.s. the P90X DVD is one of the best non-equipment routes to improve your performance. Your core (torso) turns out to be very important for hitting. P90X Extreme Home Fitness Workout Program - 13 DVDs, Nutrition Guide, Exercise Planner

It sounds like a log out of the wrapper, but starts to break down at 50 cuts, and you'll notice a dramatic sound (and pop) difference at around 100 swings.

Played in a game last night, and the opposing team "swore" the bat was shaved, rolled, or an Ultra in Salvo's clothing. All I could do was laugh. This thing is legit!

Holy cow. Straight off the UPS truck and straight out of the wrapper. Lots of pop. An instant team favorite. Another teammate has the Synergy. Keep the extra $100 and buy this bat!

This is a great bat, especially when you consider the value compared to others on the market. I have used several more expensive Easton models over the years (most recently the Synergy SRV3), and I find the Salvo to be every bit as good, if not better. I am mostly a line drive hitter - but a lot more of those liners are clearing the fence with this bat. I cannot recommend the Salvo enough. Great pop, great sound off the bat. It was pretty good out of the wrapper, but has gotten progressively better as it has been broken in. It was used heavily by teammates on all three of my teams, and held up just fine all season.

We decided to invest in a good softball bat since we started to play league softball as a hobby. It has worked great, and hits the ball far. Everyone on our team loves it, and it gets used the most out of all the bats. It gets dinged up a bit with all the hits, but that does not affect performance. We feel like we got a good buy.

One of our spare players brought this bat for our play-offs and I instantly fell in love with this bat. It has great pop and the grip is very comfortable. I had one of the best batting averages and slugging % in the play-offs using the salvo and it didn't disappoint.

I've been playing softball for over 20 years and have used many bats over the years. This has been the best bat I've used and I highly recommend it. It is well worth the $200. I will have one for our next season!! Long live the Expos!!

I play a lot of slow-pitch softball and I've used a lot of bats over the years, but none of them have produced the way the Salvo has for me or my teammates. The bat had amazing pop out of the wrapper and has been used with regularity for over a year now and still packs a serious punch.

I'm not a light tower power kind of hitter, more of a gap, line drive hitter and this bat has turned my usual shots into the gaps into rockets to and over the fence. It's an amazing bat that could easily sell for $300 or more given the results it produces.

If you're looking to drop some real coin on a bat, this is the one you want to lay down your wallet for, it's legit and worth every penny.

I purchased this bad last week just in time for playoffs for our league. The bat is hot right out of the wrapper. It wasn't as hot as some of the reviews I've read on the internet but I would say it was as hot as the Mayhem we've been swinging after all season broken in. The day after it arrived I called the guys on my team and schedlued some BP to try and break in the bat before our first playoff game. We took about 400 swings with the bat and it really opened up. The next day was our game and the other team was swearing that we had bought it and had it shaved and rolled it was so hot.

I don't know if I got lucky or not but the other team had been using one of the Salvo bats all year and the ball just didn't seem to go as far or jump of the bat as quick. Probably why they kept saying it was shaved and rolled. I even offered them to pay me for the bat and send it out to ASA and have it tested but they didn't want to.

No matter how you look at it this bat is well worth the $200.00 I paid for it. Hot out of the wrapper and even hotter after 400 swings. One suggestion if you buy this bat, take a couple hundred swing to break it in and make sure you rotate the bat in your hands after every swing so the bat breaks in evenly.

I can not believe how much power you get from this thing. I can really belt them out. I mootch off my buddy on the softball team but if he doesnt play next year then I am going to buy my own.

It seems to have a really nice balance to it and I dont notice the grip at all. You can tell a good grip because you barely can feel it but the bat says solid in your hand without having to press down on it too much.

Solid bat out of the wrapper. Hitting 44 cores in 50 degree weather and about half clearing tall 275 foot fence.