The high school national federation has amended four baseball rule changes, although the one with the most impact won't go into effect until the 2012 season.

The NFHS baseball rules committee has changed the guidelines for accepted bats, basically doing away with the composite (two-piece) bat.

"There has been a big deal in the NCAA about two-piece bats. Easton has probably done the most with them, but Wilson and Nike also have the composite bats," McCallie coach Chris Richardson said.

"It sounds like the national federation is trying to upgrade its rules about the performance of bats to coincide with more stringent NCAA rules," East Hamilton coach Steve Garland said. "It's all about safety and it moves us a step closer to wooden bats, which some state associations have already adopted."

The new rule specifies that the bat should be "a smooth cylinder implement from the top of the cap to the top of the knob." That should help ensure that it acts comparably to a wood bat and leads to less risk, improved play and more reliance on good teaching.

"The margin for error is much smaller with wood bats than aluminum bats," Garland said, "thus making the challenge for players to 'square it up' or hit the ball dead-center of the bat's barrel more profound. Coaches who feel good about their ability to teach hitting should appreciate the change."

Some hitters can merely make contact with some of the high-performance metal bats and the ball will carry, Garland noted.

"Many of the better high school players spend their summers playing in wood bat tournaments where the skill level is higher and where the degree of difficulty is much higher," he said. "If (the rule change) makes the game safer and makes players and coaches work harder at their craft to earn success, then I'd say it's a good rule."

Changes that will go into effect next season include a tighter leash on assistant coaches leaving the dugout or coach's box, a curb on dugout extensions and a baserunner being called out if he interferes with a player trying to make a catch in foul territory.

"I don't see the rule about assistant coaches having a big impact," Richardson said. "I think they're wanting to make sure that the head coach keeps a lid on it."

Rule 3-3-1g6 prohibits any member of the coaching staff who is not the head coach from leaving "the vicinity of the dugout or coaching box to dispute a judgment call by an umpire." The penalty would be that both the head coach and the offending coach would be restricted to the dugout for the rest of the game. If the action is severe enough, the umpire also has the authority to eject the offending coach and/or the head coach.

Richardson said assistants can sometimes "get cranked" and he wouldn't be surprised to see an umpire go too far interpreting the rule.

"I'm sure it will happen," he said. "But my general observation is that everything nowadays is a reaction rule. People try hard to push the envelope so that every rule now is because of something that happened the previous year."

Garland said that in most cases the umpires don't want to hear complaints but will discuss issues with the head coach.

"It is sometimes more closely enforced in summer ball," he said. "Once last summer, I was arguing a call on a play at the plate and turned around to find that my assistant had been tossed by the field umpire for merely walking onto the field and questioning the call. I was shocked that he got tossed so early and so easily. When I questioned his ejection, the umpire said simply, 'We'll listen to you, but we ain't taking nothing off the assistant coach.'"

The dugouts rule states that if they are temporarily extended, it must be toward the outfield rather than toward the field or the home plate area.

The rule regarding baserunners covers the instances when a batter will be declared out. The change reads that the batter is out if "any member of the offensive team or coach other than the runner interferes with a fielder who is attempting to field a foul fly ball." The addition of the phrase "other than the runner" clarifies the responsibility of the runner and that the runner -- not the batter -- will be declared out for the runner's interference.