Louisville Slugger Black Flame Pitching Machine

Perfect pitching machine for my 8 yr old who is in Coach pitch. He was tired of me accidentally hitting him when I would pitch to so I purchased this during the Black Friday deals. It pitches relatively straight with adjustable speeds. My son no longer has to worry about getting hit by the ball. He can concentrate on his mechanics and hitting. He has improved so much from the beginning of the season. He went from the end of the batting order to the #3 hitter due to his consistency and line drive hits. The machine is easy to put together, very light to transport, and anchors well into the ground. Simple to adjust pitches when setting up. I recommend this for anyone needing an affordable dependable pitching machine. All you need is a big yard, park, or open field.

This pitching machine is awesome! It makes our backyard training sessions so much more productive. The machine is 100% more accurate and consistent than I am or will ever be (Not saying every pitch will be perfect but the GREAT MAJORITY will be over the plate and in the strike zone). I personally only use the machine to pitch from the pitching rubber. The machine is easily dialed in for the proper ball flight and speed. My daughter has played softball since 8U and I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to watch/coach her for years, she now plays 12U. With hindsight I should have picked this product up years ago, the max ball speed is advertised at 44 for softballs and from what I recall my daughter faced a couple very talented pitchers in 10U slinging at least that if not faster out in California. With all that being said I’m very happy with my purchase, my daughter and I consider the machine as an advanced form of tee work due to the speed limits it has. Hope this help in case you might have been on the fence. Last thing I want to note... you will experience different ball flights with different brands of balls and types. Our dimple practice softballs fly straight into the dirt in front of the plate... Same setting, load a Dream Seam and it tends to rise but still in the strike zone... Same setting, load a dicks value buck ball and it travels more middle strike zone. I personally don’t see this as a problem... I consider the variation a plus since not all pitches are right down the pipe.

It was delivered today and we used it tonight. It was quick and simple to assemble. Got to the field and it took three test pitches to get it dialed in and on target. From there it was load and toss, load and toss, load and toss... We then switched easily to fly balls, and then ground balls. Again, load and toss in rapid succession. Overall, we were able to get in a ton of reps and practice in a short amount of time, much more than we would ever get with throwing the balls myself. This will also pay for itself after a few uses since we don't have to pay for batting cages anymore. The only minor issue is the slight inconsistency when pitching. I'm not sure if it's due to pulling the lever at different speeds (as mentioned in some other reviews) or if it's the softballs I'm using. I have a few different brands and types of softballs so it could be that (some have raised seams, etc). I might get a dozen rubber pitching machine balls to see if helps. Either way this shouldn't stop you from buying this machine.

I had low expectations. I only have dealt with electric pitching machines, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money. Cheapest electric machine was $400, so I took a chance buying this. Used only once so far but I am impressed. I have a 13 year old who I just can't pitch to because I'm terrible and not a pitcher. I used 12" softballs and was about 35-38 feet from homeplate and set at the highest speed which it said could go 44mph, whether that's what the pitch was idk, but it did whip in there pretty quickly. Daughter got a good hitting workout to re-time her hits as she was rusty since last season. Ground balls didn't come as hard, but still effective. The fly balls were great. I changed up with smaller softballs to give a range and change things up on her. I'd rate 5 stars, but there is one minor flaw. The pin that holds the pedal, you can go 2-3 pitches before the pin can slip off and if you don't push the pin back in before stepping on that pedal that spring can hit your leg and cause major pain. Luckily it did not happen to me because I had my leg back, but every 2 pitches I made sure the pin was in place. Mom's this also saves on your manicures! Constantly was breaking nails pitching and throwing, now this does it for me and my nails stayed in tack! Definitely worth the money.

installation instructions are vague and minimal at best. (personally, i HATE when businesses give you a barcode to scan for initial/additional instructions. like, WTH. who has the time and patience for that) (and btw i went back and scanned that code to see if this was covered and no, they didn't go over this very important detail) WHEN INSTALLING THE ARM (the part that does the throwing. it swings back and forth w a spring attached to it) PAY CLOSE ATTENTION, BE SURE TO PLACE THE BLACK PLASTIC PIECE (the one attached to the end of the spring) in between the hole of your choice. (the holes that dictate the speed of the ball.) with the black plastic piece sitting on both sides and the hole from the frame in between both sides of the plastic (now when i say right side, you should be at the back of the machine with the hitter in front of you, as if you're the operator, throwing the pitches) take the pin (the only pin given, thats attached to a key ring) take that pin and insert through the black plastic piece first, then through the hole of your choosing. when i first got it, i made the mistake of placing the spring to the right of the holes and put the pin through the left side. BIG MISTAKE. pitches were not accurate, and after throwing the spring would be all over the place, pin fell out multiple times till finally, after about 20 pitches, the black plastic piece broke. wasn't very happy at that point. but after speaking with Amazon and a person @LOUISVILLE SLUGGER CO., everything was made right. very satisfied with my purchase. great product. highly recommend. (edit. so on the replacement ireceived, it came w very good, clear instructions this time. very cool. iwonder why those same instructions weren't in the first one) hmmm. well, I'm happy regardless. thank you guys.

Good pitching machine for the money. Easy to build and works great. The adjustabilty is awesome. I would nervous about bringing it back and forth to the house and filed. It's has some weight to it and would need a truck to move it due to its shape. Also I question the durability of it bouncing around to much. But for a backyard machine, it's perfect.

I have used this pitching machine through several hitting sessions so far with my team, and I am fairly pleased. It does not throw regular baseballs quite as hard as advertised (clocked at 38mph average on max setting, as opposed to advertised 50mph). Still quite useful for youth baseball batting practice, this is about the average speed the kids will see in game, although some kids are throwing harder. Also fairly accurate in hitting the strike zone, with enough variation the batter has to adjust their swing, with the occasional pitch in the dirt which I like to keep them paying attention. Easy to assemble, easy to use. Not easy to transport. The two spike legs on the front are also a terror on floors during storage. Useful for stability on the field, but a cover or similar for storage to protect floors would be nice. Also the unit is awkward to transport; would have been easy to put on a carry handle, but as it is, the thing is not convenient to carry long distances (i.e. to and from the field). Because of the lower speed and problems listed, I only give it 3 stars. It works for its purposes, but could very easily have been a much better product with a few simple changes. In hindsight, I wish I had bought the previous model for $50 less. Still if you are a youth coach, you will get your money's worth out of this product if you don't have access to powered pitching machines and have a bum shoulder like me.

I got this for my nine year old last year. I bought two dozen baseballs to go with it as well. Using this machine to train him he has become one of the best hitters in the league, made the All Star team this year and was invited to play on our local travel team. We Once you figure out the adjustments and how to adjust trajectory based on the speed of the ball you can change velocities pretty quickly to accurately pitch. I clocked max speed with my pocket radar and got 54 mph. In my opinion this is better than an electric machine. No cords or generators needed or special balls. Gets the job done and is good quality.

Bought this 2 years ago, still works well. I leave the front metal spikes in all the time(only way you're going to have consistency in the pitches is if its spiked in, at least on faster pitch settings), takes me a minute to find the best spot to hammer it down (as your only way to set how high or low it is, is by moving it closer or farther from the plate - short of changing its speed setting). My experience is that its very consistent, I've never hit a batter. Can quickly reload to fire about as quickly as you'd want for a batter if you have a bucket of balls on standby. Have used for ages 6-8 so far.

Works really well for baseball batting practice, baseball fielding practice, baseball catching practice, and even for cricket batting practice.

Its really help during my training with my children. And its function well. Easy to installation. Thank you!!!

We really love this product. I bought it for my kids and my U14 team that I coach. It is easy to assemble, easy to use and I have already seem improvements in my own kids batting. I'm planning to unleash it on my team next week.

Very well made and is as advertised. Fully adjustable for high and low pitches at various speeds. My son loves it. Saves a sore arm for sure! Highly recommend.