River City Rascals Set to Open Frontier League Season May 18

The River City Rascals open their 14th season of play in the professional independent Frontier League on Friday, May 18th against the Rockford RiverHawks.

The defending Frontier League West Division champion River City Rascals will soon begin play in 2012. The River City Rascals open their 14th season of play in the professional independent Frontier League on Friday, May 18th against the Rockford RiverHawks at T.R. Hughes Ballpark in O’Fallon.  Throughout the season the Rascals will have weekly promotions on the schedule: The team has a compiled a thorough list of promotions this season in an effort to be more fan-friendly. Some of the things include: a Mark Buehrle bobblehead giveaway on May 20, theme nights and Super Splash Day. Tickets are on sale now. Visit www.rivercityrascals.com for more information. Box office hours will be Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m Windy City …

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Timberland's Kyle Fletcher Tops Athlete of the Week Voting

Timberland baseball player wins fans choice award for top baseball player in St. Charles County last week.

The voting for the top baseball player from the week of April 9, came down to players.  Timberland's Kyle Fletch, fresh off a week where no pitcher could get him out, squared off with Fort Zumwalt South's Drew Quinones. When the voting closed, Fletcher came out on top. The Timberland star racked up 3,068 votes (54 percent) to claim the St. Charles County Athlete of the Week crown.  Here are the results: Total votes: 5627 Kyle Fletcher's hot bat helped Timberland pull off a 3-0 week. On April 10, Fletcher was 2-for-3 with two RBIs, a run scored and a stolen base in the Wolves 4-3 win over Howell North. In the Wolves 5-0 win against Troy on April 11, Fletcher went 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored. To close out the week, Fletcher was 3-…

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Vote Now: Choose the Top Baseball Player of the Week

Show your school spirit by voting for your school's Patch Athlete of the Week.

Rain may have washed away a few baseball games last week, but some action still managed to take place—and what action it was.  All across St. Charles County great players played great games on the baseball field. Some did it better than others. Here are the nominees for the baseball player of the week for the week of April 9:  Drew Quinones—Fort Zumwalt South: Fort Zumwalt South's Drew Quinones was a tough guy to retire in the Bulldogs' two games last week. Quinones picked up seven hits in nine at-bats for South—a .778 batting average. In a loss to Holt, Quinones went 2-4 with a run scored. The next day, on Tuesday, against St. Charles West, Quinones helped power the Bulldogs past the Warriors. In a 14-13 South win, Quinones was 5-for-5 …

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Diamond Dad: O’Fallon Man Forms Baseball Team That Bats Beyond Sports

Bryan Howse started Missouri Stixx in the summer of 2011, aiming to help young baseball players become well-rounded members of their community. He is the O'Fallon Greatest Person of the Day.

Editor's Note: What is Greatest Person of the Day? Each month O'Fallon Patch features local people doing amazing things for the community. Do you know someone who fits the bill? If so, email jordan.lanham@patch.com.  One of Bryan Howse’s passions is baseball. The other is volunteering and helping children. The local grade school administrator who coached high school ball for five years at Riverview Gardens, Francis Howell Central and Marquette, was excited to sign his son up to play the game. But as the O’Fallon father of three dove into the competitive baseball world with his kids, he felt there was something missing. He wanted his children to know there’s more to being on a team than just playing hard and winning the game. So, last …

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Fans in the Stands: Rascals Reverse Concession Decision to Gear Up For 2012

The baseball team's managers decided to take back control of concession sales after a less than home run results.

On the field, the River City Rascals could not have put together a better 2011 campaign. The O'Fallon-based team won 67 of 95 regular season games and reached the Frontier League championship series for the third year in row.     But off the field, it was the roughest season in the 13-year history of the franchise in terms of attendance.    Baseball by the numbers River City finished the 2011 season last among the twelve teams in its league, averaging 1,564 fans per game. That's a far cry from years past. What accounts for the drop in fans in the stands? Team management believes an increase in concession stand prices played a role. Five years ago the Rascals sold concession rights to Aramark Sports and Entertainment, a company that …

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Holly Edgell

6:51 pm on Friday, January 27, 2012

I would try a hamburger between two donuts, baseball or no baseball... Just saying.   more ›

Tweet Tweet, Cardinals Fans

Relive the thrill of the Cardinals' 2011 World Series win through the tweets of fans throughout the season.

Whether you're a serious baseball fan or a data nerd (or both), these clear and colorful graphics of St. Louis tweets about the Cardinals during the 2011 World Series are for you. Infuz, a creative digital agency owned by Kirkwood resident Jason Fiehler, mined through the hundreds of thousands of tweets about the Cardinals within a 50-mile radius of St. Louis city from Feb. 1, 2011 to Nov. 3, 2011. "By telling the story of the season through the conversations on Twitter we can start to see the living, breathing soul of the Cardinals as seen through the eyes of its fans," said O'Fallon resident Brad Hogenmiller, who oversaw the project as Infuz's director of social media, on the company's blog. "Twitter presents us with a new channel of …

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Real Mom of O'Fallon

That's A Winner: Real Mom of O'Fallon Talks Making World Series Memories

The Cardinals World Series win creates life long memories for kids too.

Broadcaster Rick Horton may have said it best; these are the “moments we are going to remember for the rest of our lives.” For the past month, we have watched the St. Louis Cardinals make history. They defied the odds and secured a spot in the post season.  First they beat the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS.  Then they conquered the Milwaukee Brewers to become the National League Champions.  On Friday, Oct. 28, 2011, the unthinkable happened; the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers to become the 2011 World Series Champions!  I will always remember the day. I was exhausted from staying up until 1:30 a.m. because game 6 of the series went into extra innings. It was Trunk-or-Treat at my kids’ school, which was going to coincide with…

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Heartbreaker: Rascals Lose Game 3 on Walk-Off Homer By Slammers

Joliet takes a 2-1 series lead in the best-of-five Frontier League Championship series.

Brandon Peters hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the Joliet Slammers to a 4-3 win against River City in Game 3 of the Frontier League championship series Saturday night at Silver Cross Field.      Joliet leads the best-of-five series 2-1 and can nail down the championship on Sunday.      Peters unloaded on the first pitch from River City reliever Derrick Miramontes.      "It was definitely the biggest home run of my career," Peters told reporters after the game.     River City scored single runs in the sixth and seventh to take a 3-2 lead heading into the eighth. But Erik Lis tied the game with a run-scoring single in the eighth to set the stage for Peters' heroics.      The Rascals managed just three hits. …

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Rascals Take Game 1 of Champions Series

River City knocks off Joliet Slammers to take a 1-0 series lead in best-of-five Frontier League championships.

O'FALLON — It took the River City offense just 19 minutes and 35 pitches to make mincemeat out of one of the top pitchers in the Frontier League Thursday night. The Rascals scored six runs in the first inning to roll to an 8-5 victory over the Joliet Slammers in Game One of the league championship series in front of 1,204 fans at T.R. Hughes Ballpark. The defending champs take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series with Game 2 set for Friday in O'Fallon at 7:05 p.m. River City steamrolled Joliet righthander, "Captain" Jake Renshaw, who led the league with 13 wins during the regular season. The Rascals sent Renshaw packing after just one inning, his shortest outing of the season. Renshaw gave up a season-high six earned runs. He had allowed …

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