How Technology Changed Softball Indoor Practices

Colgate Softball has been on an offensive tear in 2026, breaking the Patriot League home run record midway into the season while scoring runs at a staggering rate.

Talent, from the returning players to the first-years, is the primary reason for the offensive barrage. But there are other factors as well that have contributed to the team’s best season in years.

Locker room culture. Having fun on the field. Players who have evolved from one season to the next. And a first-year group that has injected new life to a shorthanded roster have all helped to bolster the 2026 Raiders.

But another factor behind the team’s success was a productive fall season, which involved playing exhibition games, devoting extra time for coaches to teach the game — and embracing new technology that would change the way the team trains indoors.

For the first time, Colgate began using Rapsodo Softball, a system made up of cameras and software that provides hitters and pitchers with metrics, allowing players to make adjustments to their techniques.

Rapsodo is a cutting-edge device that’s used at some of the nation’s biggest collegiate programs. For Colgate, which must practice indoors during colder months, Rapsodo has provided benefits that were previously only possible when playing on a field.

Rather than simply hit a ball inside a batting cage, batters could now learn how far a ball would have traveled off their bat. In addition, metrics such as the direction of the ball and the exit velocity could be had — all by reviewing the data collected by Rapsodo and presented on an iPad.

The benefits for pitchers were similar as well. The moment the ball leaves the hand of a pitcher, Rapsodo goes to work. Pitchers would then receive data on their velocity, total spin of a ball, stride length, and the break of a ball.

Thanks to Rapsodo, coaches now have numbers to support their assessments of a player’s technique.

“Our winters are long and daunting,” head coach Marissa Lamison-Myers said. “We have to find a way to give our players feedback as if we’re practicing outside. Rapsodo has enhanced our production and competitiveness. It gives players real-time feedback. You can only tell them, ‘Good hit’ so many times.”

Rapsodo has also livened up practices inside the batting cage. During the fall and winter, the Raiders began competing with each other for who could hit the longest ball.

Lamison-Myers wanted to bring the technology to her program for years. It became possible during the previous offseason, when several parents of softball student-athletes donated to purchase the device.

“We had a group of parents of current players who asked, ‘What can we do to help the team?’” Lamison-Myers said. “I told them about Rapsodo, told them how it works. They were like, ‘OK, done.’ We are extremely thankful for their generosity.”

The season kicked off on Feb. 6, and for nearly two months, Colgate played a grueling schedule that required traveling to places with warmer weather for games. By the third week of March, the Raiders had broken the Patriot League record for home runs, which was 43. 

The Raiders were 19-17 with a 7-2 conference record as of April 7. They had clobbered 58 home runs up to that point, and had climbed into the national rankings. They were ranked 21st in the country in home runs and 18th in runs per game.

And the Raiders have shown no signs of slowing down, despite a roster of only 15 — half of them first-years.

Catcher Lily Haluska ’28, who was leading the team in RBI with 42 as of April 7, said indoor practices have improved thanks to Rapsodo. 

“It has transformed how we hit during the offseason and the winter,” she said.

It also makes indoor practices much more refreshing.

“It gets monotonous here during the winter, taking the same reps off the machine,” she said. “Using Rapsodo, it has allowed us to compete against each other and against ourselves. It adds a fun component that we get on the field, seeing where the ball is going and how far we hit the ball.”

As for the team’s mighty offense, it has been a delightful surprise to everyone in maroon-and-white. And the team hopes to keep it going as it battles through the conference schedule.

“There’s never a doubt that our team can hit,” Haluska said. “We know we are good hitters from one through nine. But being able to set the record so quickly in a season is a huge accomplishment. 

“We dedicate so much time here in the winter to getting better, working on our craft. Being able to execute on the field and seeing our hard work pay off, it’s really great to see.”

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