A change is coming.

Bazinsky Field’s power alleys are about to get a lot lonelier.

The home run, once an overblown staple of high school baseball, is about to become as rare as a teetotaler at a keg party.

Thanks to Bazinsky Field’s generous confines, home runs were the exception rather than the rule. Now, they’ll be an even smaller exception.

Next season, high schools are moving to the same composite bats used by the college game. That means smaller sweet spots and less power.

“You’re going to have to play the small ball,” newly hired Vicksburg baseball coach Ryan Grey said. “You see teams that hit 150 home runs and they hit 75 this year. We’re going have a very speedy team and we want to steal a lot of bases. That’s always been an aspect of Vicksburg High School baseball.”

Just look at the statistics from the college game. According to the NCAA, batting averages dropped from .309 in 2010 to .279 at the midway point of 2011. Scoring was down from 6.98 runs per contest to 5.63. But the most telling drop was home runs per game, down from 0.94 to 0.47, a nearly 50 percent drop.

It will be a boon to MLB scouts, who will be able to tell who has real power and who has power thanks to a supercharged bat.

But it’s not just a competitive issue, but a safety one as well.

One problem with the older bats was the speed at which a well-struck ball flew off the barrel. Third base became a danger zone as few possess the reaction time required to duck out of the way of a hotshot flying at Mach 2.

A lot of folks will bemoan the lower power numbers. The home run is exciting. But with the old bats, it happened far too often. Too many average hitters became like Albert Pujols in their ability to drive the ball out of the park.

Inflated power numbers in the major leagues was found to be a result of juiced players. Ridiculous power numbers in the college and prep ranks have been the product of juiced bats.

Increased drug testing took care of the power surplus in the major leagues. Deadened bats have done the same in college baseball.

Baseball had become all about the home run, to the detriment of pitching and defense. The stolen base, once a powerful weapon, was no longer a big deal.

Not any longer.

Speed will be gold. So will defense and pitching. Playing that style of baseball is derisively termed small ball.

But what was once a term of derision will become the standard.

Just call it baseball like it was meant to be played.

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Steve Wilson is sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. You can follow him on Twitter at vpsportseditor. He can be reached at 601-636-4545, ext. 142 or at swilson@vicksburgpost.com.