STATE COLLEGE — Aluminum bats would be benched from youth baseball games under a proposal by a state lawmaker who contends such a ban would make the sport safer.

The idea from Rep. Mike Carroll comes a month after the New York City Council passed similar legislation that banned metal bats in high school games. New Jersey legislators are considering a similar bill.

Protecting kids from injury is the top priority, said Carroll, who represents Luzerne and Monroe counties and is an assistant coach on his son's Little League team.

Echoing proponents from other states, Carroll said balls batted off aluminum bats travel with greater speed and force than those struck off wood bats and cited a limited study in 2002 from Brown University on bat performance.

Carroll is seeking cosponsors for his proposal. Under the bill, players would be fined $25 and organizers $50 for using nonwood bats.

Many supporters cite two accidents in calling for a ban, including the death of 18-year-old Brandon Patch, who was struck in the temple by a baseball hit off of an aluminum bat in an American Legion game for Miles City, Mont., in 2003.

A 12-year-old boy in New Jersey went into cardiac arrest last summer after a line drive off a metal bat struck him in the chest in the millisecond between his heartbeats. He returned home from the hospital in February.

Those instances are tragic, but rare, said Little League Baseball president Stephen Keener, who opposes blanket bans on metal bats.

The number of injuries by batted balls to pitchers has decreased from 145 in 1992 to roughly 30 per year now, Keener said.