It All Started with a Love for Baseball and A Prayer

Founder and Owner, Leland Wetzel, grew up playing and loving the sport of baseball. The dream at a very young age was to play college ball, and possibly pro ball. After suffering shoulder injuries through his junior high years and eventually going through 2 shoulder surgeries, one during his sophomore year of high school, and the other during his freshman year of college, any baseball after high school was out of the question.

Leland also grew up with a love for wood working, following in his grandpa and dad's footsteps, so he decided to put the love of baseball and woodworking together. In July of 2012, Leland thought of the idea to make a wood bat for his nephew who would be turning one year old in August of that year. After talking to his grandpa, they went and met up with a wood-turner who let Leland borrow his lathe to make the bat.

When Leland pulled up to the man's house to make that first bat he sat in his car and prayed. The prayer was simple, but Leland had no idea what the Lord had planned for the future.

Leland prayed, "Lord, if you want this to be a hobby for me or maybe something even more than a hobby, give me a passion for it". And He did just that.

After making that first bat, he had to make more. The next few months involved extensive hours of learning about wood, best practices of wood-turning and testing bats. ​And Xylo Bats, LLC was created.