How North Oconee baseball uses TrackMan technology and science to its advantage

Launch angle. Exit velocity. Home run distance. Spin Rate.

These seem like metrics only used by Major League Baseball teams, but North Oconee baseball is one of the few programs nationally that has benefited this season from state of the art technology.

Provided by TrackMan, the same company tracking balls on golf telecasts, North Oconee has up-to-the-second metrics to review after each pitch during a high-school game.

TrackMan has given the Titans and 10 other programs nationwide its technology on a three-year pilot program to test its accuracy in a high-school venue as it looks to venture outside of college and professional ballparks.

"It’s interesting to see how the game is growing from a technology standpoint and a concept standpoint to what it was 10, 15 or 20 years ago," said North Oconee head coach Jay Lasley. "Any time you can have more information to give players and for coaches to use to help players be better, I think it is, as much as anything, great to help our kids get better, learn from and grow."

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North Oconee has been on the forefront of technological for several years. For the past few seasons, it's used a Rapsodo device to gauge pitching performances inside its team building while using a Blast swing analyzer sensor on bats during practice to analyze the shape of a batter's swing.

The TrackMan system, however, has taken baseball science to a new level at North Oconee.

It can evaluate the spin rate of a curve ball out of a pitcher's hand, determine the amount of break that a pitch has and chart an umpire's strike zone. It can also measure a catcher's quickness while delivering a throw down to second base. The device calculated one throw from senior catcher Cale Stricklin, a UGA commit whose father, Scott, is the Bulldogs' head coach, as having a 1.69 pop time, the elapsed time from when it hits a catcher's mitt until it reaches the intended fielder at the base.

The average MLB pop time is 2.0 seconds, with the best in the league, J.T. Realmuto, averaging 1.82 seconds.

TrackMan's most alluring quality is tracking a player's performance in the batter's box.

A hitter will get feedback on the speed of their swing, the speed of the ball leaving the bat, their angle at contact and how far a ball has traveled.

The technology will instantly calculate the metrics and shoot the information from the Titans' press box and onto a website they have on a monitor in the dugout.

"The biggest thing is justification of what we’re doing; what we’re teaching," said North Oconee pitching coach Thomas Dimitroff. "It gives us feedback of everything we’re teaching and we’re working toward. Hit the ball hard, throw the ball as hard as we can. It just proves it when we take it to the game and can translate those skills into the game."

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Two weeks ago, junior KJ Moon gave the dugout a thrill after launching a 426-foot homer that registered a 105 mile per hour exit velocity, both the highest this season for North Oconee.

When the metrics flashed onto the monitor in the dugout, it became ecstatic with high fives, open mouths and stunned faces.

"When he hit it, we all looked at the TV and it was 105 and he hit it something like 430, we were all freaking out," Stricklin said. "We'd never seen a ball hit that far or that hard. He's a beast."

TrackMan selected North Oconee to test the products partly because of its success (the Titans won the 2022 state title with a 39-1 record), but also because the coaching staff reached out to a representative three years ago seeking information about the technology.

It was out of the budget, however, but when the company came back to the Titans this season with the offer, there was no hesitation.

They were also approached by 44 Pro about using its new line of bats this season. The company gave the Titans and 10 others, including Buford High School, a 'fitting', much like pro golfers receive.

Having its foundation in the golf industry, 44 Pro initially offered only gloves when it broke into the baseball world. Now it has extended their line to bats, with Georgia Tech being the first college team to test them this season.

"Being a golf company, they talk about the fact that you don’t swing the same club for every shot," Lasley said. "For the 44 Bat company, they’re trying to figure out if you face a sinker baller compared to a high-velocity guy, should you use two different bats? That’s one of their concepts that they’re trying to figure out."

The benefits of science and technology have immensely impacted the Titans, who host Starr's Mill in a semifinal double header Saturday at 4 p.m. A third game, if necessary, will be played Monday night at 6.

"I think a lot of (the benefits) are that it gives kids a tangible number or an idea that they can work around," Lasley said. "I think that helps them get better. And the kids these days are so inundated with technology that it doesn’t even faze them."

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: North Oconee baseball uses Trackman Technology and other science