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Prior to Friday night’s season opener against San Jose State, the Long Beach State Baseball program unveiled the latest upgrade to Bohl Diamond at Blair Field–one that’s intended to help transform the Dirtbags’ pitching staff.
Along the first-base line, adjacent to the Dirtbags Pavilion, Long Beach State Athletic Director Bobby Smitheran led the unveiling of the Bohl Annex Pitching Lab, a brand new facility that utilizes biomechanics to analyze and improve pitching performance.
“The Bohl annex is really a state-of-the-art pitching lab that also can serve as an event space, and it’s one of only a few on the west coast that we are aware of,” Smitheran said. “And this really creates an advantage for our pitching staff from a development perspective, but also for our program from a recruiting perspective.”
The pitching lab takes over a space that was once used as the Dirtbags’ batting cage, but has essentially been a storage facility since the construction of the Troy & Danyll Tulowitzki Batting Facility in 2017. The building has been renovated with new flooring and lighting, with updated branding on the exterior.
From a technology standpoint, there is a new Bertec force plate mound inside, which measures a pitcher’s biomechanics throughout their windup and delivery to home plate.
Dirtbags head coach TJ Bruce also spoke in detail about how the pitching lab will function, and how it’s one of just a few facilities like it in the country at the collegiate level.
“What this pitching lab ends up doing is it gets inside the pitchers mechanically,” he explained. “You’ve got the new Edgertronic camera now, where you can see a cuticle as they’re delivering the ball in a bullpen or in a real game to see if the ball comes off more the middle finger or the index finger … You can also see where they’re landing, how they’re staying over the rubber. Meaning is their foot too much on the outside of the body, the inside of the body? It’s just all the things that we can’t see with the naked eye.”
Bruce said the pitching lab will be a benefit not just to his program, but to the Long Beach baseball community at large.
“I think it’s going to help transition our community, to be honest,” Bruce stated. “I think as we host camps, as we host local high schools, they’ll be able to use our pitching lab in some way, shape or form throughout the camps, and then we can get an earlier evaluation, not only on their stuff, but on what could cause an injury down the road.”
In addition, Bruce mentioned his willingness to have professional ballplayers utilize the pitching lab, whether they’re former Dirtbags players or not. He specifically mentioned current Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Landon Knack, who has already been working out at the facility during the offseason. As Major League Baseball becomes more data-driven, this technology is what’s being used by pro ballplayers across the globe, and it’s now available in Long Beach.
Also taking the mic was Marilyn Bohl herself, who has already made a financial investment in transforming Blair Field into Bohl Diamond at Blair Field. With the intent of getting the Dirtbags back to the College World Series, this is her latest effort to support the Long Beach State baseball program.
“My thinking was clear. The Dirtbags play a game to win, and how can I help them win? Bobby and TJ said, ‘Pitching lab,” Bohl explained. “My goal that I established here about 20 years ago is I want to get to Omaha to the World Series with a team that means something to me. And that should be the Dirtbags, so let’s go.”
