After several years of being pelted by homeruns out to left field, the Poly Wells Field scoreboard finally got some protection. Along with replacing the panels that were broken by long balls, the department of athletics enclosed the front side of the board with a net to prevent it from the Wildcats’ onslaught of heavy hitters.

Last season alone the team hit 37 homeruns, led by senior Peyton Hedrick, who had 15 of her own.

“I can’t give a number of how many times I’ve hit the scoreboard,” Hedrick said. “But many of us, especially the older girls like Holly [Neese] and Bri [Barnhill], have been hitting the scoreboard quite a bit over the years. I don’t remember the first time hitting the board, but we always had a fun time doing so.”

Unfortunately for Hedrick and the rest of the Wildcat hitters, they will no longer have the satisfaction of hearing their hits, in practice or in games, clang off the board. However, Hedrick said the team might be able to hold on to a few more balls now, and if you look closely you can still see the dents from past hitters.

“It depends on how hard you hit the ball and what part of the scoreboard you hit, but some balls stay inside the scoreboard, some bounce out,” Hedrick said. “There are still a bunch of dents on the board.”

ACU debuted the net this past week in a double-header against Bowling Green. The Wildcats won both those games 3-2 and 8-4, and with the one lone homerun of the series, the net seemed to do its job.