CARBONDALE, Pa. — Stone Wormuth's swing is a work of art. So is his bat, but it's not made out of aluminum. It's wood and he made it from scratch.
"I prefer wood more than I do medal," Wormuth said. "Back in high school, I actually asked my high school coach can I use wood. They were expensive. They weren't cheap. They would break every other day. That's basically why I stated making my own bats. I look down, make sure the grain is pretty straight. I start rounding off. It's not a long process, just some people think it's boring."
But not this mechanical engineering major at Wilkes. Wormuth got just nine game into his freshman season with the Colonels before the pandemic canceled the rest of it, but that just gave the 19-year-old the time he was looking for.
"This never would have happened if the coronavirus was never to occur, the pandemic shut everything down," Wormuth said. "I had so much time on my hands because you really couldn't go anywhere and things like that and that's kind of where this whole idea sparked."
That idea sparked a business in his family's wood shop in Carbondale – the aptly-named Stone Bat Company.
"I sell them now for 95," Wormuth said. "A lot of local people from around the area have been buying them. I actually just made two for a minor league player."
In about two months, he's made over 50 bats, a process he's got down to about an hour, and continues to perfect.
"After every bat, I just keep getting better and better," he said. "I love doing this. I could do this all day if I could. The most unique thing about it to me is just how much time and care goes into one bat. If someone were to come here in my shop and see how much effort and how much time and how much perfection that I put into each and every bat, they would think it's the most unique bat in the world."
Wormuth uses hard maple, but he customizes the color, length and finish every order. Like Wormuth himself, the business is still young, but he's already got the logo and the slogan. Stone Bats: Hard as a Rock.