This past year I had the pleasure of meeting Sofia Alcazar. She is an applied math senior who is also extremely passionate about sports, specifically baseball. As a journalism major, I would not say that math nor statistics are my strong suits; however, I was on the sports section at Mustang News for a year so I do understand baseball and we connected about our mutual love for the sport.
Alcazar and I became closer this quarter and she let me into what she calls her “pride and joy,” her job as the pitching operations manager for the Cal Poly Baseball Program’s Analytics squad. She introduced me to the pitching coach who she works closest with and he was willing to give my partner Ryan Burr and I a full tour of the new Dignity Health Center building. We were able to take videos and photos inside their facilities. He allowed us to film the players while they practiced, which served as our b-roll clips in the video. His interview gave us a solid background about the team and what they do in order to move forward with the story.
Four years ago, Cal Poly Baseball brought on three student managers to help paint the lines, drag the dirt and film for the team. About a year ago, the program and donors invested in extremely advanced technology to track key metrics. When the coaches realized that they did not understand how to work the new technology or understand how to translate the findings from the devices, they turned to the three student managers. Industrial engineering senior Jack Dwyer, co-director of analytics for Cal Poly baseball was one of them. He helped start what we now call the Stangs Analytics Crew.
“Although the first time we struggled, we realized this is important to them, we need to get better,” Dwyer said. “So we just tightened down and worked harder.”
The equipment that Dwyer is referring to is expensive and often used by MLB teams. Some of the devices that they operate include the Rapsodo, TrackMan and Blast Motion. Alcazar joined the the team to help learn how to operate the devices very early on as well. She was the only girl on the squad for the entire first year.
“I was never treated any differently, so that was amazing,” Alcazar exclaimed. I would be one of the only girls out there on the field; it was super empowering.”
The analytics crew now has nine members, which according to Dwyer, puts them in the top ten for the largest college analytics squads in the nation. When I asked Alcazar to write this feature on her and the data analytics team, she seemed surprised. They had never been approached by Mustang News and they jumped at the opportunity. Ryan and I were glad that everyone in the story was responsive and easy to communicate with.
“It was very exciting to cover a side of Cal Poly sports most people don’t know about,” Burr said. “Everyone involved with Mustang Analytics was really welcoming and we were grateful for the opportunity to do the in-person interviews.”
The story showcases all of the Stangs Analytics hard work for the baseball program that is actually paying off this season! This past weekend the Cal Poly Baseball team pulled off two upsets our of three games against number 6 ranked UCLA Bruins. The weekend before they outscored Utah Valley 28-4 throughout the three-game sweep.