Aaron Rekich seems to be a natural at making baseball bats, at least that's what his dream told him.

Rekich, a 2000 graduate of Butler High, had dreamed he bought a lathe and made a bat on which inscribed the word "Wonderboy," just like the 1984 movie "The Natural."

Five years later, Rekich, his brother Joe and Adam Palace, also former Tornado players, have turned RLC Bats into a lucrative business.

Rekich's girlfriend, Nicole Makin, Joe's college friend, Kyle Roth, and Tim Cerwinske round out the business members.

"Me and Adam started out from Little League to Legion," said Joe, 22, a senior at Indiana (Pa.) University. "He grew up with my family."

RLC — Rekich Lathing Company — was the brainchild of Aaron, who was a student at Slippery Rock University when the idea struck him.

"I sold (a) bat to buy two more billets (round wood planks)," said Aaron, 26, of Gainesville, Va. "I thought that it would be a side thing at college. I started making them for SRUplayers and then they told their friends.

"It got to be too much," he added.

"It's been such a substantial growth the past couple of years," said Joe, 22 of Butler. "You wouldn't expect it. "

"At first, I didn't think we'd end up selling it all over," said Palace, 22, who is majoring in electrical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. "But, with eBay being around and everyone getting a website, you can sell here and sell there.

"I'd be at school and get an e-mail from Aaron that we just sold this many bats to Oklahoma. ... It's kind of mind-blowing that it was something that started in someone's backyard screwing around,"Palace added.

Before Aaron knew it, Ron Zawrotuk, the then-Butler High baseball coach, wanted to honor his seniors with personalized bats.

"After that, I got a call from Gene Zawrotuk, who was the Butler Legion coach, and we sold about 40 to 45 bats to them.

"We were turning them by hand on site. That's when it became a business venture and not a hobby,"Aaron noted.

"Being at that age, it looked like fun. We thought we'd make a couple," said Palace, 22 of Meridian. "A couple of years later, we're all over the world."

RLC Bats has sold bats in every state except Alaska and to customers in Australia, England, Japan and Canada.

"They use all wooden bats in Canada; no metal bats," said Aaron.

That seems to be a growing trend. New York State recently passed a law that only wooden bats are to be used in almost every amateur league, and, starting this year, the Eagle County Baseball League began using wooden bats.

"Our sales to New York have tripled," said Aaron. "Regular sales have doubled by the month."

"(Eagle County League president) Dan Cunningham has been a secret advertiser," said Joe. "He's been getting people our way. He really helped us out when Aaron was playing for him in the Eagle County League."

And RLC Bats offers more than bats, which are made in ash and maple. The company also sells batting gloves, personalized bats, 18-inch mini-bats, on-deck bats and fungo bats for coaches.

"The regular bats make up 90 to 95 percent of our sales, the mini-bats 5 to 10 percent," said Aaron.

And things only look to get better for the company. Joe Rekich and Palace will join Aaron in Virginia after they graduate from college.

"We'll do it full time," said Aaron. "We'll go cross country, go to the Arizona Fall Classic. We have some players in the major leagues who use it in the off season. My first cousin on my mom's side (former Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Don Kelly), he and Jack Wilson hit in the cages with them."

Joe Rekich predicts a bright future for the company.

"If you ask me today about four years from now, I'd say look for us in every Dick's Sporting Goods and Wal-Mart," he said. "We're really setting our sights high."