Division I NAIA Softball 2024 Results
uHIT Gameday and Custom
Year-Over-Year Hitting Improvements
July 15, 2024
Division I NAIA Hitter Case Studies
Overview of On-Field and uHIT Performance
Central Methodist University (CMU) Softball used uHIT for its fourth consecutive season in 2024. We look at their season as an example of Division I NAIA Softball 2024 results. For the 2nd straight year, they clinched a berth in the NAIA College World Series, only the 5th time in program history. We have seen successful results with CMU since the 2021 season. You can read more about those results here (2021), here (2022) and here (2023). In this case study, we will look at overall trends for the team. We will also focus on two hitters that used our new product in 2024, uHIT Gameday. Two more hitters who began learning skills with the time-tested uHIT Custom will also be the focus.
Want to run the numbers yourself? Check out Central Methodist’s 2023 and 2024 numbers on-field here to compare year-over-year.
Division I NAIA Softball 2024 Results: Overall Usage
During the season, seven (7) hitters trained with uHIT Custom and nine (9) trained with uHIT Gameday. The coaches selected hitters for each program based on their experience level and projected playtime. Generally, hitters doing uHIT Custom were less experienced freshman / sophomores who needed to learn basic skills in pitch and zone recognition. Conversely, hitters doing uHIT Gameday were more experienced starters who needed to learn the nuances of pitchers they were facing daily.
We begin this analysis of Division I NAIA Softball 2024 results by looking at usage. Across the two groups of hitters, the team trained on a total of 30,915 pitches from restart in January through the end of the season in May. (These totals do not include 10,000+ pitches worked by everyone in uHIT Custom during the fall). The breakdown of training across uHIT’s modules in the spring was as follows:
- Pitch Recognition – 8,041
- Zone Enhancement – 6,112
- Reaction Time Enhancement – 2,121
- Gameday – 14,641
As the usage numbers show, the hitters found uHIT Gameday highly useful as a preparation for opposing pitchers. With opposition pitcher data provided from coaches, the hitters trained against 30 different pitchers within the Gameday module. Furthermore, we observed the hitters switching the controls in the app to select the opposing pitcher of the day. This showed that each of the Gameday hitters was actively engaged with their preparation and using the tools their coaches provided them. As any coach knows, it is not easy to get players to guide their own training like this. In 2024, we proved it is possible with Central Methodist Softball.
Overall Team Hitting
We analyzed overall team hitting by examining year-over-year changes in the OPS. OPS is a key metric in this analysis of Division I NAIA Softball 2024 results, as it has been for other college and pro analyses of our work. From this metric, we see how the changes manifested in decisions to get on-base (OBP) and decisions that resulted in multiple bases taken per at-bat (SLG). In 2023, the team hit .885 OPS, with .407 OBP and .487 SLG. In 2024, with the addition of Gameday among its starters, the team hit .941 OPS, with .432 OBP and .509 SLG.
To isolate the impact of uHIT Gameday, we examined players who had at least 30 at-bats in both seasons and used Gameday in 2024. Among these players, their OPS increased by 118 points. Driving this change, SLG increased 74 points, and they reduced their K/BB ratio by 29 points on average.
Hitter Deep Dives: uHIT Gameday
Here, we highlight two hitters for their on-field improvement and hard work shown on uHIT Gameday. The first hitter, Kaysie, provides an example of a hitter who got her start with uHIT Custom during the previous season. She then excelled when given Gameday for a game-adjustment tool. The second hitter, Daly, provides somewhat of a counterexample. She was a hitter who excelled at uHIT Custom first, before making the jump to uHIT Gameday. We generally find Daly’s path to be the most successful for a hitter. But sometimes a coach (as the CMU coach did) will decide that a hitter is ready for that jump. With Kaysie, we certainly saw the coach’s intuition was right.
- Kaysie
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- Trained on 1,933 Gameday Pitches (3rd most on the Team)
- Improved on her excellent 2023 OPS by 132 Points (1.063 in 2023; 1.195 in 2024)
- Reduced her K/BB Ratio to 0.76 in 2024 from 1.19 in 2023
- 78% Accuracy on uHIT Gameday
- Daly
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- Trained on 1,739 Gameday Pitches (4th most on the Team)
- Improved her OPS by 238 points (.545 in 2023; .783 in 2024)
- Improved her SLG by 184 points (.205 in 2023; .389 in 2024)
- Reduced K/BB Ratio to 0.81 in 2024 from 1.1 in 2023
- 79% Accuracy on uHIT Gameday
One of the analysis capabilities of uHIT Gameday is that we can zoom in on a hitter’s count tendencies. For instance, we looked at Daly’s decisions by count and saw that she excels in hitter-advantage counts (red circles on the left side below). From that graph, we see she struggles in pitcher-advantage counts (more blue for lower XP on the left side of the figure below).
In the Gameday Count graph, we see the hitter-advantage counts (1-0 and 2-0) are high XP / Pitch counts (red filled in). 1-0 averages 107 XP / Pitch and 2-0 averages 129 XP / Pitch. As we get to more pitcher-advantage counts (2-1 and 3-1), we get good XP / Pitch values (purple filled in). But these are not as high. 2-1 counts average 72 XP / Pitch and 3-1 averages 87 XP / Pitch. As we get into strong pitcher-advantage counts (0-1, 0-2, 1-2 and 2-2), these counts average 31, -12, -2, and 22 XP / Pitch (blue filled in). Her new counts (0-0) are closer by outcome (67 XP / Pitch) to the 2-1/3-1 counts than to the 1-0/2-0 counts.
Going into this coming season, this info will be a particular focal point for Daly’s hitting approach. Her stronger capability counts are not first pitch. Rather, she sees more success if she turns the account to one of hitter advantage (1-0 or 2-0). Even if she goes towards pitcher-advantage early (e.g., 0-1), she has a decent chance to make a good outcome if she comes back towards the middle (1-1) and right part of the above graph.
Hitter Deep Dives: uHIT Custom for Pitch Recognition
Here, we highlight two other hitters who did not get many live at-bats. But with uHIT Custom, we track with their coach the tangible progress they made in pitch recognition skills. These new skills indicate a strong potential for on-field transfer, as shown from other work done with the team in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
The first hitter, Diana, provides an example of a hitter who struggled early with recognizing different pitch types (61% Accuracy at Assessment). But as the uHIT Custom algorithm adjusted to her strengths / weaknesses, we saw tangible change in her recognition of various pitches (77% Accuracy by end of season). The second hitter, Sydney, showed similar global changes in her abilities to recognize pitches of different types (51% to 78% Accuracy from Assessment to end of the season). These are foundational skills to young CMU hitters and learning them through uHIT Custom helps ready them fot uHIT Gameday, once they become starters.
Details of Diana and Sydney’s skill development are below:
- Diana
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- Trained on 2,092 Pitches in Pitch Recognition
- Improved to 77% Accuracy from 61% Assessment Accuracy
- Reduced her Reaction Time to .429 seconds from .444 seconds
- Improved across all the pitch combinations
- Sydney
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- Trained on 2,119 pitches on Pitch Recognition
- Trained on 1,161 pitches on Reaction Time Enhancement
- Improved PR Accuracy to 78% from 51% during the Assessment
Expected vs. Actual Pitches
One of the analysis capabilities of uHIT Custom is that we can see which pitches a hitter struggled with or excelled at. Furthermore, we can see how they start (at their Assessment) and how the training modified the way they recognize those pitches. For instance, we looked at Diana’s decisions by what pitch was expected (Expected Pitch on x-axis of each graph below) and what pitch was actually shown (Actual Pitch on y-axis of each graph below).
The Actual vs. Expected graph shows two 3-by-3 tables side by side. The left table shows the combination of expected vs. actual pitch results from the Assessment. The right table shows the same combination but what the Current state was for Diana after a season of training. For instance, at her Assessment (left graph), Diana could not recognize (0.0%) one curveball (Actual Pitch) thrown when she expected a drop ball (Expected Pitch). See the middle of the top row in this graph. By the time the season ended, she had worked over 2,000+ pitches in training this skill. As a result, she pushed that Accuracy up to 40.8% (middle of the top row on Current). Other pitch combinations for Actual and Expected can be inspected in this way. An for every combination, we see Diana improved.
Overall, we see a darker 3-by-3 table for Current than for Assessment. These darker squares correspond to higher Accuracy values. Furthermore, along the diagonals the values are highest. In these instances, Diana is seeing and executing on the pitch she is looking for the best. And she has improved this mark of aggressiveness from her Assessment. Importantly, her off-diagonal values are higher too, and this indicates a good inhibition ability for when she sees a pitch to layoff. Combining these 9 zones’ changes, we see how she went from a 61% Accuracy overall at her Assessment to a current 77% Accuracy at the end of the season.
A Comprehensive Fall and Spring Plan
CMU’s 2023-24 season show how a Division I hitting program optimizes the tools of uHIT. As valued clients, Central Methodist and Colorado State Softball got exclusive access to uHIT Gameday for their 2024 seasons. While they benefited from early access to drive in-season hitting, we now have a comprehensive view on what uHIT tools are best for different parts of the season.
For instance, from usage trends (and results of CMU starters), we see that uHIT Gameday is the ideal tool to use in-season during the spring. Conversely, when more basic skills are being learned in the fall, uHIT Custom is a wiser choice. It is important to note though that hitters not getting a lot of at-bats can still benefit from uHIT Custom in-season too. We have seen coaches use this tool to give those hitters reps outside of real games. As a result, they’ve reaped the benefits of this strategy (see here).
Overall, these Division I NAIA Softball 2024 results demonstrate how well-hitting teams can reach a higher level of performance. The results also show how a program can implement a comprehensive plan to get its hitters making decisions at the plate that result in more bases, more runs and ultimately more wins.
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