Back on the Floor: How Hit & Run Baseball Went from Six Tools to One with Baseline

A different tool for every part of baseball facility management

Michael Pena had been part of Hit & Run Baseball for about a decade before he took it over in 2019. The business runs on three sides — the facility, the travel teams, and rentals — and for years each one lived on its own software. Nothing talked to anything else.

He started on eSoft Planner, a web-based scheduler that had aged badly. It was built for a desktop, ran best in Safari, and made him zoom in and click through screens that were never meant for a phone. It worked, but it was a nightmare to use, and what Michael wanted was a real mobile app.

So he moved to Upper Hand. It was fine, but bland, and it ran about $180 a month. Then it grew complex faster than he wanted to manage, so he went back to eSoft and rode it from version three into version four. Four was nicer. It still had no team element and no programming feature.

To cover the gaps, he kept bolting on more tools. TeamSnap for the teams. Track from Driveline for programming, which on its own could climb toward $800 a month. LeagueApps to collect payments for Diamond Nation and Ripken events. Google Sheets and Docs for whatever was left. Adding one roster player in LeagueApps, he said, felt like it required an engineering degree.

The real damage was in the seams. Teams ran on one system and the facility on another, so a coach booked to run a practice could also be booked for a lesson at the same time. Catching those collisions meant constant double-checking, and on the day a rainout reshuffled everything and a check got missed, a parent noticed.

“It was TeamSnap, League Apps, Upper Hand, Track from Driveline, Google Sheets, Google Docs. You name it, we used it.”

Michael Pena, Owner

The pros were too heavy to ignore

Michael was introduced to Baseline through a mutual connection. The pitch that landed was the structure: it is basically its own website, but it houses everything underneath — facility scheduling, team management, payments, and event management — with a programming feature he could grow into.

He was wary. He had already churned through Upper Hand, then eSoft three, then eSoft four in a short stretch, and every switch meant retraining his clients. His sister, who was coaching him through a stressful season, told him to stay open-minded. So he ran the numbers and listed the pros and cons.

“I ran my pros and cons, and the list of pros on Baseline was pretty heavy to ignore. You adapt or die.”

Michael Pena, Owner

He signed on in March 2025 and, for the first time, stopped looking for the next platform. This one was here to stay. Support was a big part of why. When he has a question, Nikki sends back a screen recording, usually for something simpler than he had feared.

Everything in one place, run from a phone

Games, practices, classes, rentals, and payments now live in one place. Six tools became one: eSoft Planner, Upper Hand, TeamSnap, Track from Driveline, LeagueApps, and the Google Sheets and Docs holding the rest together. The consolidation is what Michael feels most, because he can run the essentials from his phone. With a two-and-a-half-year-old at home and a newborn who arrived within the last couple of months, that matters more than it used to.

“For me to open up my phone, pull up Baseline, and still navigate the essentials, it’s incredible.”

Michael Pena, Owner

Two to four hours a day, and time to coach again

Michael puts the time savings at two to four hours a day, something like twenty hours a week once the setup is done. He used that time to take a college coaching job in his first year on the bench, and he can still run the business from his laptop between innings of an away game.

“We don’t want to be stuck behind a laptop. We want to be out there living life, out there coaching.”

Michael Pena, Owner

Two to five grand a month, back in the business

The old stack added up month after month: Upper Hand at about $180, TeamSnap for the teams, LeagueApps for event payments, and Track from Driveline at up to $800 on its own. By Michael’s own count, consolidating onto Baseline saves somewhere between two and five thousand dollars a month, roughly the cost of a full-time hire. That money now goes toward a full-time coach who can step in and run the platform when Michael is away.

“We’ve saved probably two to three, maybe even five grand a month, just on tech.”

Michael Pena, Owner

Booked a month before he remembered

Late in a rough college season, juggling home and the team, Michael realized he had never scheduled his own training classes for an upcoming day. He put it off, then put it off again, and finally opened the schedule at the last minute to salvage what he could. The classes were already there. He had booked himself a month earlier and forgotten.

“I was stressed, like, I don’t have the time to do this. Turns out I’d already done it a month ago.”

Michael Pena, Owner

The only complaint is that it’s full

Parents took to it without a learning curve, and the booking experience carries itself. When classes open, they fill. The feedback Michael hears now is the good kind of problem.

“The only complaint I get is, hey man, all of these classes are full. That’s a me problem, not a you problem.”

Michael Pena, Owner