O'FALLON, Mo. — After seeing the River City Rascals walk last season, the O'Fallon Hoots set up shop at CarShield field for a new Prospect League.
But due to the coronavirus, that season is no more.
Luckily the Hoots and general manager, David Schmoll, found another alternative for fans this summer, a Collegiate League.
"It was tremendous, it was a really, exciting day for our players and really for our community to be able to have baseball back here in O'Fallon," Schmoll said.
The league is comprised of six teams, featuring high-caliber baseball prospects from the area, where they will compete in 30, 7-inning games.
CarShield Field, which typically seats 5,000 fans, has scaled back to only 1,200 a night.
"We have made sure that we are still abiding by social distancing at the ballpark," Schmoll said.
Along with staff wearing face masks, players in the dugout will have to wear face coverings. Wearing face masks is not required of fans, but is recommended.
The Hoots have marked off rows of seats to encourage social distancing, along with installing hand sanitizing stations around the park. The biggest change fans should expect is at the ticket booth.
"We've gone cashless, so we've gone strictly to credit cards, we did have some fans that weren't necessarily prepared for it," Schmoll said there's advertising online and social media to make sure this doesn't happen in the future.
Just in case you've missed the action so far, the Hoots will be hosting double-headers almost every day in July and the first few weeks of August.
With the O'Fallon Heritage Freedom Festival canceled this weekend, Schmoll said CarShield Field will be the place to be.
"We're expecting two big nights," Schmoll said. "We want to be able to put on a firework show and be able to have a game for the community on the Fourth of July weekend."
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