BATON ROUGE, LA – Popular Science, the world’s largest science and technology magazine, has awarded the Marucci CAT7 Connect BBCOR bat a 2017 Best of What’s New Award in the Recreation category, the magazine announced today.

Each year, the editors of Popular Science review thousands of products in search of the top 100 tech innovations of the year—breakthrough products and technologies that represent a significant leap in their categories.

“The Best of What’s New awards honor the innovations that shape the future,” said Joe Brown, Editor in Chief, Popular Science. “From life-saving technology to incredible space engineering to gadgets that are just breath-takingly cool, this is the best of what’s new.”

Marucci has engineered years of ongoing research, feedback from some of baseball’s best players, and the latest technology into the CAT7 Connect to produce one of the hardest-hitting, highest performing bats available.

“Being recognized by a world-renowned publication like Popular Science is an incredible honor for us,” said Kurt Ainsworth, Marucci CEO/Co-Founder. “We pride ourselves on quality and making the tools players want and need to be successful, and this award recognizes all the research, testing, and feedback we’ve done to make the best bats on the market.”

The CAT7 Connect is a two-piece aluminum-composite hybrid bat connected by SDX or Shock Dissipation Connection technology, which absorbs and dissipates vibrations on contact before they reach the player’s hands. The result is a smoother, more solid and more confident swing.

Best of What’s New awards are presented to 100 new products and technologies in 11 categories: Automotive, Aerospace, Engineering, Entertainment, Gadgets, General Innovation, Security, Software, Home, Health and Recreation.

The winners, the Best of What's New, are awarded inclusion in the much-anticipated December issue of Popular Science, the most widely read issue of the year since the debut of Best of What's New in 1988.

See the entire list of Best of What's New here.

About the Marucci CAT7 Connect

The CAT7 Connect is a two-piece aluminum-composite hybrid bat connected by SDX or Shock Dissipation Connection technology, which absorbs and dissipates vibrations on contact before they reach the player’s hands. The result is a smoother, more solid and more confident swing.

With increased tinsel strength and a higher response rate of its AZ4X alloy, the barrel is designed with up to seven variables of wall thickness, which create a larger area of thinner wall, otherwise known as the “sweet spot.” The entire CAT7 bat line has a sweet spot twice as large as its Marucci predecessor, the CAT6.

In order to meet certification performance standards, other bat manufacturers craft internal governors, or rings, into the thin-wall barrel which prohibits those spaces from bending on contact, thus decreasing the massive trampoline effect and resulting in a “dead” feeling on contact. Through expert design and stronger materials, the CAT7 Connect and all other Marucci bats are designed with ring-free barrels that allow maximum performance with no dead spots while still meeting certification standards.

About Popular Science

Founded in 1872, Popular Science is the world’s largest science and technology magazine; with a circulation of 1.3 million and 6.8 million monthly readers. Each month, Popular Science reports on the intersection of science and everyday life, with an eye toward what’s new and why it matters. Popular Science is published by Bonnier Active Media, a subsidiary of Bonnier Corporation.