State Tournament Tiebreaker Rule

[HeinekenMan]

I am writing about a local Little League softball team that played in the state tournament, and I have a question. Their coach called me tonight complaining of an injustice.

The Florida Majors state tournament features eight teams. One team dropped out for an unknown reason. That left only three teams in Pool A. All three teams went 1-1. Orange City won 4-3 and lost 8-0. Defuniak Springs won 8-0 and lost 13-1. Windermere lost 4-3 and won 13-1. Someone said the tiebreaker was runs ALLOWED. Defuniak would be out in that scenario. If it was runs SCORED, Orange City would be out. This evening, the tournament director notified Orange City that it was in the semis tomorrow and notified Defuniak Springs that it was out. A few hours later, the director called again to say that he had provided incorrect info. Currently, he says Orange City is out and Defuniak Springs is in.

Does anyone know whether runs scored or allowed is the tiebreaker? If not, what the hell is it?

[d-mac]

1. The first tiebreaker is the result of the head-to-head match-up(s) during pool play (Segment 1) of the teams that are involved in the tie.
a) If one of the teams involved in the tie has accomplished EVERY ONE of the following, then that team will advance: i. Defeated all of the other teams involved in the tie at least once, AND;
ii. Defeated all of the other teams involved in the tie in every one of the pool play games it played against those teams; AND; iii. Played each of the teams involved in the tie an equal number of times.
example: Three teams are tied with identical records for first place at the end of pool play, and one team is to advance to Segment 2. Teams A, B and C played against each other once in pool play. Team A won all of its games against Team B and Team C during pool play. Result – Team A advances, while Team B and Team C are eliminated.
b) Each time a tie is broken to advance one team, leaving a tie between two or more teams, the situation reverts to “B. 1.” (head-to-head results) in this section. 1. Example: Three teams are tied with identical records for first place
at the end of pool play, and two teams are to advance to Segment 2. Teams A, B and C played against each other once in pool play. Team A won all of its games against Team B and Team C during pool play. Result – Team A advances, which then creates a two-way tie between Team B and Team C. That tie then is broke by reverting to “B. 1. a)” in this section.
2. If the results of the head-to-head match-up(s) during pool play of the teams that are involved in the tie cannot break the tie (because no team defeated each of the other teams in the tie each time they played, or because no team has defeated all of the other teams involved in the tie in everyone of the pool play games played between those teams, or because the teams involved in the tie did not play one another an equal number of times during pool play), then the tie is broken using the Runs-Allowed Ratio (see Section IV).
C. In all cases, if the tie-breaking principles herein are correctly applied and fail to break the tie, or if these guidelines are not applied correctly (in the judgment of the Tourna- ment Committee in Williamsport), then the matter will be referred to the Tournament Committee, which will be the final arbiter in deciding the issue. If a tie cannot be broken through the proper application of these guidelines (in the opinion of the Tournament Committee), then a playoff, blind draw or coin flip will determine which team(s) will advance. This is a decision of the Tournament Committee.
SECTION IV – RUNS-ALLOWED RATIO
A. For each team involved in a tie in which head-to-head results cannot be used (because no team defeated each of the other teams in the tie each time they played, or because no team has defeated all of the other teams involved in the tie in everyone of the pool play games played between those teams, or because the teams involved in the tie did not play one another an equal number of times during pool play), the tournament director will calculate: The total number of runs given up in all pool play games played by that team, divided by the number of half-innings played on defense in pool play games by that team. This provides the number of runs give up per half-inning by that team: the Runs-Allowed Ratio.
1. Example: The Hometown Little League team has given up eight (8) runs in all four (4) of its pool play games, and has played 23 innings on defense in those four games. 8 divided by 23 equals .3478
2. The Runs-Allowed Ratio for Hometown Little League (.3478 in the example above) is compared to the same calculation for each of the teams involved in the tie.
B. The Runs-Allowed Ratio is used to advance ONLY ONE team. C. If, after computing the Runs-Allowed Ratio using results of all pool play games played
by the teams involved in the tie: 1. one team has the lowest Runs-Allowed Ratio, that team advances. After one team
has advanced using the Runs-Allowed Ratio, the breaking of any other ties must revert to the methods detailed in Section III – Tiebreaker Procedures, before the Runs-Allowed Ratio is used to break the tie.
2. two or more teams remain tied, and the methods detailed in Section III – Tiebreaker Procedures cannot be used (because no team defeated each of the other teams in the tie each time they played, or because no team has defeated all of the other teams involved in the tie in everyone of the pool play games played between
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those teams, or because the teams involved in the tie did not play one another an equal number of times during pool play), then the Runs-Allowed Ratio must be recomputed using statistics only from the pool play games played between the teams involved in the tie. The results are used to advance ONE team, and any other ties must revert to the methods detailed in Section III – Tiebreaker Procedures, before the Runs-Allowed Ratio is used to break the tie.

[HeinekenMan]

Thanks. I found the same rules shortly after I posted about it. I discovered that one team playing today had a lot of incentive to lose on purpose in the last game of pool play. Team X had to win to stay alive and advance to the semis. But Team Y only needed to avoid scoring a lot but still losing. If Team Y scored too much in a loss, it would have put Team X in jeopardy of losing the RAR tiebreaker to Team Z. Then Team Y also would have lost the head-to-head tiebreaker to Team X. Something is wrong with your system when a team plays a game hoping to lose without scoring any runs.