Jon Venters returned from his stint in the Independent League and combined on a 4-hitter with Urbana's Wes Rehmert in a 14-1 Sox victory on Tuesday night, May 31 at Rotary. Ryan Pearson led the Sox batting 2-for-3 (HR, 3RBI, 3 runs scored) followed by Wade Hoffstetter 2-for-3 (3 runs scored and 2 RBI). The Sox produced 15 hits for the evening.

   As the famous Ernest Lawrence Thayer poem goes:

The Outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:

The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play.

   Well, as it turns out on Thursday night, it was Rotary Park and not Mudville. And the score was indeed 4-2 in favor of the Sox in the bottom of the seventh inning. And wouldn't you know it...Casey did come to bat with the winning runs on base. But in this alternate ending to the famous poem, Mighty Casey did not strike out; rather, Casey Fannin connected on a 3-run double for a Cardinals 5-4 walk-off victory.