O’Fallon Hoots
Dad and I head to O’Fallon’s CarShield Field on opening night for a collegiate summer league game between the O’Fallon Hoots and the Cape Catfish.
It was opening night in the Prospect League, a 20-team collegiate summer league that operates in five Midwestern states, as well as Pennsylvania and Tennessee. Collegiate summer leagues give college-eligible players a chance to hone their skills during a two-month season, using wood bats instead of aluminum. There are dozens of these leagues across the United States, and we would see three of them on this road trip. The Prospect League is a good one — full of historic ballparks, some of which hosted affiliated Minor League baseball just six years ago. It attracts top talent, too, with 21 league alumni being selected in the 2025 Major League Baseball draft.
For the O’Fallon Hoots, it was also a Tuesday, which meant the game came with the team’s “$2 TwosDay” promotion, in which tickets, hot dogs, soda, and basic beer cost just $2. We were in for a fun night of baseball with a big crowd, and the total cost of our tickets was $4. Is it any wonder that we choose to focus on minor league baseball?
The Hoots play at CarShield Field, which opened in 1999 as T.R. Hughes Ballpark. It has 3,500 permanent seats and can accommodate 1,650 additional fans.
Hoots players lined up at the gates to greet fans for opening night, handing out plastic water bottles sponsored by a pair of local hospitals.
The Hoots began in 2018 as the Hannibal Hoots, an expansion Prospect League franchise based in Hannibal, Missouri. But their ballpark flooded in 2019, forcing the club to move for a season to Quincy, Illinois. The next year, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the River City Rascals — an independent professional team playing in the Frontier League — folded after 21 seasons in O’Fallon, giving the Hoots an opening for a long-term home at CarShield Field.
The Hoots averaged 1,182 fans per game in 2025, eighth-best in the Prospect League.
I made a solo trip to the team store to pick up a baseball for Dad and a hat for me. There were a handful of good options in the team’s colors of black and golden-yellow.
The merchandise included jerseys from the Shredded Cheese, a lower-level team in the 1st Phorm Collegiate League that also plays at CarShield Field.
O’Fallon had finished 2024 with a winning record but missed the playoffs. Their opponents for our game, the Cape Catfish of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, had a slightly better record in 2024 — ending the season on a 9-1 hot streak — but fell in the first round of the playoffs to the Thrillville Thrillbillies of Marion, Illinois.
All of that was history with a clean slate on opening night.
The concourse was lively before the game, packed with community organizations doing small giveaways and handing out brochures.
The pre-game ceremonies began with a first pitch and a rendition of “God Bless America” by a children’s choir. Then Charles Glenn took the field, walking steadily with a cane, to sing the National Anthem. A local icon who has opened for Smokey Robinson, Huey Lewis and the News, and the Allman Brothers, Glenn sang the National Anthem at St. Louis Blues games for 19 seasons. Glenn was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2011, but he has continued to perform since retiring from regular Blues appearances.
Glenn gave it his all — including ending the line, “O’er the land of the free,” with a note that lasted a full 10 seconds — and the appreciative crowd responded with a robust chorus of “Bluuuuuuues,” as they do at Blues home games.
O’Fallon jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on a throwing error and a fielder’s choice off Catfish starter Jorge Romero, who finished the 2025 season playing independent professional ball with the Idaho Chuckers of the Pioneer League.
Catfish shortstop Cooper Newsom singled home a run off Hoots left-hander Ryan Hoshaw in the top of the second. The pitchers took control for the next few scoreless innings, with O’Fallon leading 2-1.
The concessions were crowded early on with fans taking advantage of the Tuesday deals. A $2 hot dog (or two) was tempting, but we both went for brats, which hit the spot.
In the fourth inning, Romero — who had already thrown 77 pitches — was relieved by Missouri State left-hander Drew Wedgeworth, who went 4 1/3 innings further for the Catfish, allowing just one hit and no runs.
The scant minutes between innings were filled with activities: musical chairs, a t-shirt toss, a race between two tropical fish and mascot Hooty; St. Louis Cardinals trivia with the reward of throwing a cream pie at an intern; a leapfrog race with Hoots players; an unsatisfying Dizzy Bat race in which neither contestant understood the instructions; and a deeply unsatisfying frozen shirt competition in which neither participant made any headway in getting their shirt to thaw from its ice-block form, let alone getting it unraveled and worn as a shirt. (Watch the episode!)
Ty Holman of St. Louis University relieved Hoshaw in the sixth inning for the Hoots and kept the score at 2-1.
I took a walk out to left field, where kids played basketball, climbed about on a playground, and rolled lazily down a grass berm.
Further uphill, I found the group suites, with tents for dining and chatting that led to three rows of box seats.
Catfish left fielder Nathan Bowie hit a solo shot to right-center field in the top of the seventh to tie the score. The Catfish rallied for two more in the eighth to take a 4-2 lead.
Things looked tense in the press box.
The Hoots put runners aboard in the ninth, then brought one home on a fielder’s choice. With runners on second and third, O’Fallon first baseman Mitchell Bonczkowski hit a dribber between shortstop and third base that eventually reached the outfield, bringing two runners home and walking it off for the Hoots. Players streamed onto the field, bounced around, tossed water, and exulted in hope becoming reality.