Amateur baseball players have always been interested in using statistics, seeing videos of their play, and leveraging data analytics for improving their performance. However, most of this technology wasn’t available to them without a big-league budget.

Provided are 4 apps a baseball league could incorporate to provide its players with both a competitive edge and a more enjoyable experience. The ICL is only using one of these software tools today, but perhaps others are on the horizon. Plus, several of these apps have ties to our local baseball community!

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400hitter

400hitter is statistics software that includes player stats, league standings, league scheduling, umpire assignments, player registrations, and more. The Intercity League began using it in 2006, and has every year since. While it does not provide real-time play-by-play like GameChanger does, it us the best baseball software on the market for amateur baseball leagues.

400hitter was created by Mike Ganley, a player in the Boston Men’s Baseball League. His tool was quickly caught on, and today is used by the ICL, Boston MABL & MSBL, and most of the amateur leagues across Greater Boston, including the Yawkey, Park, Commonwealth, North Shore, and Cranberry leagues.

400Hitter keeps track of a player’s statistics across their career, wherever they play. So when a player changes teams or leagues, their statistics remain linked – as long as their league is in the 400hitter network – as most Boston-based leagues are.

Having career stats for players and teams also allows for features not found in other stats apps, such as career leaders by league, career leaders by team, day vs. night splits for a player, and rookie stats. Plus, each game’s line scores, box scores and summary can be viewed online as well as shared via social media.

400hitter costs $75 per team and must be used for an entire league to function accurately.

Ganley finished his amateur career in 2009, and today is the Director of Baseball Systems for the Boston Red Sox. You know his work with 400hitter helped him move up to the majors!

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ChangeUp

ChangeUp goes beyond what a typical pitch counter does to track pitches within a baseball game. It allows coaches to manage pitcher workloads and assess pitcher performance across multiple teams and leagues.

This has never been more important across amateur baseball. Pretend Sean Sullivan is pitching on your team. Most managers would love to have him, as he has a career record of 60-29 with a 2.37 ERA. But did you know that in addition to pitching for the Alibrandis in the Intercity League he also pitched for the Boston Bombers in the Boston MSBL?

How can a manager track detailed game appearances and pitching performance across multiple teams in different leagues? They could look it up, page by page in 400hitter, but that wouldn’t really provide any date tied to a player’s pitching availability, or about what innings they are most effective in.

Now, this data can be available as long as all a players’ teams and leagues are using ChangeUp. The Futures Collegiate Baseball League is using ChangeUp today, and the app founders hope their app catches on!

At the competitive amateur level, pitchers use ChangeUp data analytics to understand how effective they are, and managers use it ensure they get strong performance from their staff with fewer trips to the disabled list.

Overall, the ChangeUp pitching app allows users to:

• Accurately track pitching performance across unlimited teams and seasons.
• Ensure compliance with mandated pitch count restrictions and required rest.
• Access powerful analytics focused on effectiveness, durability, and safety.
• Observe trends and growth by seeing historical player profiles.

The ChangeUp platform tracks pitchers from their very first appearance until they hang up their cleats, enabling lifelong career profiles that support training and development. Now pitchers can track their personal growth over a single season or a lengthy career – one pitch at a time.

Download ChangeUp for free from the Apple App Store. League plan prices vary based on need.

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Realplay

Realplay delivers video of every swing, pitch, and catch that any player makes on a baseball or softball field. Their cameras capture every moment to help players improve, share their highlights, and hold on to memories.

Justin Real is the founder of Realplay. Real started playing baseball in the Yawkey League in 2006 and joined the Boston Men’s Baseball League in 2010. He retired from amateur baseball in 2016 to start up his business. Today, his app provides video access to players unlike anything he ever had access to himself.

Every baseball players using Realplay has access to video of their baseball performance – edited, tagged and posted for them after every game. Of course, it requires that a Realplay camera systems is installed at each fields where games are played. Perhaps there are some ICL teams that would be interested in installing cameras at their home field.

The video they produce is unmatched at the amateur level. Their split-screen views allow players to understand how to make the physical adjustments that will help their game. Plus, Realplay offers photo and video albums that can be saved or shared on social media in an unprecedented way. Real-time feedback is now available in a way that never before existed.

Realplay costs $7.99 a month for individuals, or $450 a season for a team.

In December 2021, Realplay was named as one of the 101 Best Massachusetts Sports Companies and Startups.

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Switcher Studio

Switcher Studio lets you sync multiple Apple devices to livestream directly to Facebook, YouTube, or other social media platforms.

Today, Local Sports Productions presents many ICL games in such a way that makes the league broadcasts appear professional. Some managers even post occasional Facebook Live feeds directly from their phone.

But with Switcher Studio, whoever is producing from their mobile phone can easily add player names to introduce athletes, player interviews, guests or sponsors to provide commentary. Plus, you can keep score and track counts with custom scoreboards. If you’re up for it, you can even shoot with multiple iPhones to capture multiple angles. Some of the other local leagues around Boston have been using Switcher Studio for several years.

Switcher Studio enables family and friends who cannot attend the game to watch – and comment – as the action unfolds. The players can also watch the game recordings later to see their best performances and which calls the umpires got right (or wrong).

Cell phone data is not an issue if you have an unlimited data plan from your provider. But bring an extra battery pack if you hope to stream a full 3-hour game, as the video can quickly drain your battery.

Switcher Studio costs $45 a month during baseball season.

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Interested in any of these baseball apps for your league? Tell your manager so they can bring it up at the next Board meeting. And best of luck on the ballfield next season!

By Bruce Hackett

Watertown – The score was knotted at 1-1, the bases were loaded with one out in the bottom of the sixth, and the stage was set for Lexington to use one of its favorite plays – the suicide squeeze. As Julian Alvarez broke for home and batter Alex Krylov squared to bunt, the play didn’t quite happened as drawn up. Krylov didn’t get the bunt down as the pitch was high and Alvarez slid across home plate with the championship winning run.

Despite switching the game to Victory Field in Watertown, the Blue Sox were ready to win their sixth consecutive championship, the first ICL team to accomplish the feat, It was also the Sox 16th ICL title.

The inning started with Josue Feliciano singling to start the rally. Gage Gaunt got down the sacrifice bunt to move Feliciano into scoring position. Expos starter Cam Monagle intentionally walked Alvarez. Luke Hall delivered a double to left scoring Feliciano and tying the game at 1-1. Dahiandy Johnson is intentionally walked to load the bases and set the sweet championship winning play.

The starting pitchers, Monagle and Lexington’s Jake Vesling dominated the first three innings. The Blue Sox sent the minimum nine batters to the plate as Johnson, who had singled in the second, was caught stealing for the second out. Monagle struck out a Sox batter in each of the first three frames. Meanwhile Vesling had allowed two singles through the first three innings with five strike outs.

The Expos ended the scoreless streak when Andrew Mazzone took a 2-1 pitch the opposite way over the fence in left for the 1-0 lead to start the fourth. Dionys Quezada followed with a single, stole second, took third on a fielder’s choice but was stranded there as two strikeouts sandwiched around a caught stealing ended the threat.

The Blue Sox got their second base runner in the fourth when Feliciano leadoff with a single. He would get no further. In the fifth the Sox doubled their hit total with two singles by Krylov and Will Potdevin, but they were both stranded and the score stayed 1-0 Expos.
Vesling was making his first start of the postseason for Lexington. He responded with four good innings as he gave up four hits, one earned run, walked none and struck out seven.

He was followed on the mound by Borja Jones-Berasaluce who pitched two scoreless innings with two hits, no walks and 2 strikeouts to put him in to position to get the win, his first this postseason. Then closer supreme Manny Delcarmen came in to pitch the 7th and Middlesex was retired in order with two strikeouts.

This was the lowest scoring finals game since Lexington beat Reading 2-1 on August 24, 2017 for the 2017 title.
It is tied for the third lowest scoring playoff game since 2006. The lowest is a 1-0 win by Andre over Lexington on August 23, 2013.

Congratulations to the Middlesex Expos for a great first-year season in the Intercity League. They finished second in the regular season and second in the playoffs.
Since 2006 this was the eighth meeting in the finals between top two teams. The number one seed having now won five times.

Another Intercity League season has come to close. After a season away due to a global pandemic the players and their teams were ready to get back on the fields. It was a great season with four teams battling for the top three spots which gave that team a bye in the playoffs.
The race for playoff spots went down to the last week of the regular season.

As the lights go out for the final time for the 2021 season all the players, coaches and team staff want to thank the fans for their attendance and support. Everyone looks forward to seeing you in 2022.

By Bruce Hack
THURSDAY’S GAME THREE WILL NOW BE PLAYED AT VICTORY FIELD IN WATERTOWN AT 7:00 PM.
Melrose – Lexington moved to within a win of taking the 2021 Intercity League championship with a 6-0 shutout of Middlesex in game two of the finals.
Alex Voitik and Josue Feliciano each hit solo home runs to power the Blue Sox offense. Voitik, hit his first round tripper of the postseason, leading off the third inning giving Lexington a 3-0 lead. Feliciano, hit his first of the postseason, leading off the sixth inning, to put the Blue Sox up 6-0.
Pat McGowan and Manny Delcarmen combined on the four hit shutout with two walks and six strike outs. McGowan, in his second postseason start, pitched two 1-2-3 innings in the first and fifth. He stranded four Expos, only two in scoring position.
Though the Lexington streak of scoring in the first inning was stopped, the Blue Sox scored twice in the second, the only runs they would need. Dahiandy Johnson singled with one out, his first of three on the night. He stole second and third with two outs and Brendan Jones stepping to the plate. Jones worked a nine-pitch walk to put Blue Sox on the corners. Number nine hitter Dom Zaher walked on eight pitches to load the bases. Feliciano saw eight pitches, the last one was ball four and Johnson trotted home with the first run of the night. Gage Gaunt reached on error and Jones scored for the 2-0 lead.
After not scoring in the first the Blue Sox scored in the next five innings. Zaher scored the run in fourth on a passed ball. In the fifth Zaher singled to drive in Johnson.
Lexington has now scored in 19 of the 32 innings it has played in the postseason or 59%.
Zach Kirby started for Middlesex, but the Expos ace was not at his best. In the second inning he threw 45 pitches, he pitched 25 of them to Jones, Zaher and Feliciano who all went to full counts. Kirby’s night ended after five innings pitched. He gave up 7 hits, five runs, 3 earned, walked three and struck out eight. There was also three wild pitches among the 124 pitches he tossed.
The shutout was the first for Lexington since August 14, 2019 when the Sox blanked Andre 1-0 behind Mike Geannelis. It was the Blue Sox first finals shutout since August 26, 2018 when they blanked Watertown 8-0 in the title clinching game.

The teams hope to play game three on Thursday night weather permitting. The forecast is not good.
For up-to-date information on the league and status of game three go to www.intercityleague baseball.com

To watch all the action live streamed on You Tube, go to Beyond Sight Sports. The link will be posted on the ICL website and twitter as soon as possible before the start of the game.

The Middlesex Expos built on a fourth inning three run homer from Brett Samboy, breaking a scoreless tie, and went on to beat the Melrose Americans 7-2 on Sunday night at Morelli Field. With the win the Expos take the best of three semifinal series two games to one.

Samboy led the way with two hits and Michael Oliveira added two hits and a pair of RBI’s. The Expos took advantage of nine walks issued by Melrose pitching.

Scott Hall picked up the win for Middlesex going six innings and allowing just three hits while striking out six. The Americans touched up reliever Ryan Qualey for both runs in the top of the seventh on an RBI single from Pat Costigan and a wild pitch.

The Expos will now move on to meet the Lexington Blue Sox in the best of five Championship Series beginning on Tuesday night at 7:45 PM.

Lexington – To watch the third and deciding game of the semifinal series between the Andre Chiefs and Lexington go to http://youtu.be/QqaCbtwtbe8

You can also follow the action on the Blue Sox Twitter and updates will be posted on the Intercity League twitter.

After the game check back here for a full recap of tonight’s action.