Rifling through

A baseball player strikes the ball with great force down the left field line. Using baseball lingo, you could say the player drove it, or lined it. But is it acceptable to say he "rifled" it?

I'm hearing more and more sports announcers using rifle as a verb meaning "to strike with great power (like a rifle shot)." It has made its way to soccer, as evidenced by Sunday's Galaxy-Sounders game. 

Dictionaries are split on the matter but tend not to favor the newer meaning. Most just stick to the traditional definitions of the verb, "to search" and "to ransack." (I even learned a new one: you are rifling when you are cutting grooves into a gun barrel.)

Last year, The New York Times criticized TBS announcer Chip Carey for his usage of "rifled" in a baseball playoff game, but it is unclear whether they objected to the verb in general or just in that situation. If the writer was against the definition, he should probably get used to hearing it more.