Sports is viewed as a game of numbers. For softball, it’s the number of hits a player whacks, the number of runs a team pushes across and the number of wins a team compiles over a season.

With the rise of advanced analytics over the past 10 years, whole new applications of statistics and sets of data like Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP) or Pitches Per Plate Appearance (P/PA) have been created. To navigate and interpret this data, some teams have hired specialty positions who are responsible for gathering and sorting analytics. For the University of Missouri, that woman is Alivia Forshey.

Surprisingly, Forshey was not a trained analytics expert. She began as a softball player at Bowling Green State University, earning a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing. Forshey ended up at MU as a volunteer assistant coach starting in 2023. After one year as a volunteer, she was offered the role of director of player development.

“I don’t have an analytics degree, which is something that people traditionally have in this role,” Forshey said. “So it has kind of been a learn-on-the-fly thing for me.”

Every week, Forshey puts together a large stack of papers analyzing the performances of batters, pitchers and fielders. These charts contain a variety of helpful information such as hot hitting spots, areas of chasing the pitch and where the ball lands once it’s hit. Part of Forshey’s job is to communicate to players and fellow coaches what these numbers mean and how they can implement new strategies to improve.

“It’s just good tools to be able to give them some feedback,” Forshey said. 

One of the areas that can be measured by analytics is exit velocity. By using a modified radar gun, coaches can measure the speed that the ball is hit off the bat. A ball that is hit faster on the ground is tougher to field and one hit through the air will travel further. As a result, teams are always trying to maximize the exit velocity of their own batters while minimizing the velocity for opponents.

“When you’re tentative and you’re swinging with just your hands, your exit velocity is 55 [miles per hour],” head coach Larissa Anderson said in an April press conference. “When you really get after it and push into the ground, your exit velocity is 75 [mph]. So then they can start to see some of those things and feel what that feels like.”

These sorts of advanced analysis sheets have only become readily available in the past 10 years. Many of these technologies are new, but have quickly become an integral part of a team’s ability to game plan.

“I think I would have been obsessed with that when I was in college,” Forshey said. “I think I probably would have done a lot less school.”

These sort of analytics are necessary for Missouri, as they are competing with such elite opponents. The SEC is the most competitive softball conference as currently, there are 10 teams ranked in the top 25 according to the April 22 USA Softball Top 25. The entire conference is successful with their use of these sorts of analytics as they have the resources available to use them at a high level.

But these top-tier schools won’t be the only ones holding these resources forever. As the necessity for high-level analytics increases, more of the smaller programs are willing to invest in these sorts of resources.

“As this continues to grow across the sport, there’s going to be more and more opportunity for roles like this,” Forshey said. 

These sort of player analysis tools can be the difference between wins and losses for programs. As a result, the faster a team can adjust in the new landscape, the more likely the team is to succeed. 

“I’ve seen a huge growth in our team from almost being afraid of [analytics] to wanting to learn more,” Forshey said. “They are so eager to get better … I think they like getting this stuff, I think they use it.”

What the method may be, it’s working for Missouri softball. The team sits at 35-13 in its first year with Forshey as the director of player development after finishing 35-26 last season. The Tigers are searching for their first 40-win season since 2021 when the team last made a Super Regional appearance.

Edited by Grace Ainger | gainger@themaneater.com

Copy edited by Grace Knight | gknight@themaneater.com

Edited by Genevieve Smith | gsmtih@themaneater.com