Tulsa National has been disqualified from the Little League World Series. Although it was the correct decision, the representative of Oklahoma already defeated two other baseball programs during the Southwest Regional tournament.
Only one of those two teams were eliminated with a second loss.
The late disqualification created an unfortunate shakeup to the Little League regional bracket, which led to an unfair result. This problem could’ve been solved before the tournament if the authoritative figures in charge did their jobs as they are supposed to.
Tulsa National was disqualified for eligibility violations.
Just a few weeks after the Tulsa National softball program was disqualified from the Southwest Regional right before the championship game, the exact same thing happened with the baseball program. Team Oklahoma is removed from the bracket.
As first reported by Maren Angus-Coombs of Softball on SI, the disqualification stems from the use of ineligible athletes. Three of the six different teams at the Southwest Regional filed a joint protest on Sunday. Little League, which actually denied an initial protest from Texas West earlier in the week, announced its ruling on the secondary protest on Monday. Tulsa National is out.
The complaint challenged four potential violations:
- Sibling participation — Regulation II(a)(1)
- League eligibility
- Pitching more than one game in a day — Regulation VI(k)
- Completing a game — Rule 4.10(c)(2)
To be completely honest, I originally viewed this protest as throwing everything at the wall to see what would stick. And then the pieces started coming together.
Tulsa National is accused of retroactively modifying (and deleting) data in the GameChanger app, which is most often used to track game results and statistics. That would not be necessary if there was nothing to hide. Perhaps the organization was trying to cover up incomplete games and/or the improper use of a pitcher in direct response to the allegations. It was a huge red flag.
If that was not bad enough, Tulsa National Oklahoma District Administrator Mindy Abbott and Tulsa National Little League President Steve Skocik are accused of using Little League’s disability program to falsify player eligibility. They allegedly used the adaptive baseball program to get players eligible for the Little League World Series through the sibling participation clause.
The three-team protest reads as follows:
“Not only are there multiple sources that have confirmed that Tulsa National Little League did not play a Challenger game this year, there are questions regarding whether the player would even qualify for the Challenger program. Using a special needs program in this manner is so egregious that anyone involved with this should be banned for life from Little League.”
It is unclear as to why exactly Little League decided to disqualify Tulsa National. It did not cite a specific violation.
Little League compromised the Southwest Regional.
Although Little League got it right in the end, the timeline of the investigation and subsequent disqualification created an unfair bracket at the Southwest Regional. The same thing happened with softball.
Tulsa National was disqualified from the Southwest Regional softball tournament after it had already advanced to the championship game. The “semifinal” game between the two teams that were originally going to play for a spot in the championship game against Team Oklahoma essentially became the championship game after the disqualification.
It is the same format with baseball. Louisiana and Texas West were supposed to play an elimination game on Monday. The winner of the elimination game was going to advance to play in the championship game against Tulsa National on Tuesday. Because Tulsa National was disqualified, the winner of Louisiana and Texas West will be crowned as the Southwest Regional champion. The champion advances to the Little League Baseball World Series in Williamsport.
That is not the issue. It is the only way to move forward without blowing up the entire bracket.
However, the late disqualification of Team Oklahoma puts Texas East at a significant disadvantage compared to Louisiana. Texas East lost to Oklahoma in the second round on Friday. It was later eliminated from the double-elimination tournament with a loss to Texas West, which it had already defeated in the first round of the regional tournament. Louisiana also lost to Oklahoma on Sunday and will play Texas West in the new championship game on Monday.
Texas East did not get that same opportunity. Even though it went 1-1 against Texas West, it was then eliminated by a team that has since been disqualified. The loss to Oklahoma shouldn’t have counted because Tulsa National was disqualified.
More simply put, Texas East was penalized for having to play Oklahoma while Louisiana was allowed to advance. If it was possible, the solution is simple. The two teams that lost to Tulsa National should play each other in a true elimination game. The winner would then play Texas West in the championship on Tuesday. Unfortunately, that game cannot be played.
Texas East was the biggest victim of Oklahoma’s disqualification. It did not get a fair chance to advance.