After years of many broken windows and students voicing their concerns, the Linfield softball field is finally having nets installed to prevent foul balls from leaving the park. The Associated Students of Linfield University (ASLU) is heading the operation.
“Another exciting project that ASLU would like to announce is the donation of $40,000 to install nets around the softball field. We have heard your concerns, and we want to make an impactful move for the students,” ASLUs cabinet said in an email in May.
Diego Arredondo, prior ASLU VP of Finance also noted that Linfield’s athletic department is also helping pay for the nets. The $40,000 comes from ASLU’s budget that is put towards Capitol Development every year.
Students have been complaining for the past couple of years. Many have had their car windows broken and dented. Some students have even been hit themselves.
Linfield junior, Andrew Lee, was one of the victims of a rogue softball, and is ecstatic that nets are finally being implemented. He was walking near the six-packs on his way to the library during spring semester. As he was walking, he saw his friends and greeted them quickly.
“If I had waited like a second more, if I stopped to talk to them, then I wouldn’t have gotten hit,” Lee said. “But as soon as I crossed the street, I was just like on my phone, I was changing the music, and all of a sudden it just whacks right in my right forearm with the ball … So if I had taken like, one more step or anything, it could have been my head, but luckily, it was only my arm.”
Lee said his arm was swollen and bruised for days after that. He also recalled a lot of his friends’ cars getting dents and windows smashed from parking along SE Renshaw Avenue and in the parking lot next to Mahaffey Hall and behind the six-pack.
“I get they have the signs and stuff,” Lee said. “But still, it’s like baseball has these massive nets. Why don’t you do the same for softball? Because, if anything, the balls are a lot bigger … I just think the signs were just never a good option in the first place, because people will park there because they have to. There’s no other (option). I’m not gonna go park at the library and walk all the way back to where I live.”
However, Lee recognizes that it is not the softball team’s fault for the damage done by the softballs.
“It doesn’t bother me that much that students give us a hard time,” Linfield softball player and ASLU VP of Student Activities Hadley Dunham said. “I personally never park by the softball field because I know that foul balls are bound to happen, there are warnings up for those who choose to park close to the field … I think my teammates are of the same mindset of the complaints. Foul balls aren’t intentional, they’re just a part of the game.”
Dunham also said that the nets would help the team with practice. With the nets, they won’t have to go search for foul balls outside of the field and people’s cars will stop being dented.
“We haven’t discussed wanting nets that often,” Dunham said. “But we know it’ll help both us and people that park by the softball fields to know that foul balls won’t damage other people’s vehicles.”
The nets have yet to be installed but are estimated to be stationed starting in the winter or early spring.
