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UMass Baseball – Fundraising Priorities (Description provided by Coach Reynolds)
NEW Lorden Field PA System: Through your generosity we will be completely revamping the Public Address and Audio systems at Earl Lorden Field. This is a long overdue upgrade that will feature a new speaker system offering a MUCH more balanced sound at the ballpark. We will be replacing every piece of equipment within the press box to fully modernize our audio cabinet. Beyond the gameday experience, this also allows us to connect with Bluetooth during practice and offer wireless connectivity to microphones for ceremonies or practice needs. We are excited about this upgrade to “The Earl”! The athletic department has confirmed this can be in place before our home schedule starts next season.
NEW Trackman Baseball Ball Flight/Pitching Monitor: The addition of the Trackman Portable system will unlock a series of advanced development opportunities for both our pitchers and hitters. This system can reliably capture pitching metrics beyond what we have been able to in the past with Rapsodo and will be the first time that we are able to give feedback to our hitters in a batting cage setting with metrics such as Exit Velocity, Launch Angle, Spin Rate and Spin Direction as well as ball flight distance (no more false homerun claims!). The portability and ease of use with this system allows us to gain the benefits in all our training environments, the Boyden Cages, the Bubble and of course at Earl Lorden Field both for practice and games. I could draft an entire essay on how much this impacts us, but in short… this is a huge step forward for our program and for the development of our Minutemen!
Three generous donors have already stepped up and offered to match donations up to a total of $30,000! This means we have an opportunity to have a total impact of $60,000 on the baseball program for the 2025 season should we activate the entire match! Any support beyond the cost of the two priorities listed above will be reinvested into the baseball program to help supplement their annual budget.