The South Snohomish team’s run through the Little League Softball World Series appeared unstoppable.
After three games, the Washington state champions owned a 3-0 record, were the only undefeated squad in the 10-team tournament and had outscored their opponents 25-3.
Then a decision made “in the bubble of intense competition” brought the team’s championship hopes and dreams crashing down, and sparked a national debate about what constitutes fair play.
Forced into a controversial playoff game Tuesday, which South Snohomish lost, league officials released a statement admitting the coach made a decision that led to the end of the team’s shot at a national championship.
It all started Monday. Competing in its final pool game, South Snohomish — a team made up of 11- to 13-year-old girls — lost to North Carolina 8-0 while failing to record a single hit.
That left Washington (3-1), North Carolina (3-1) and Iowa (3-1) tied for first place in Pool B, with the top two teams advancing to the semifinals. Because the tiebreaker was based on the number of runs allowed by each team, North Carolina and Washington were the teams that would have advanced.
Almost immediately, Iowa’s coach cried foul.
“It was very evident when they did the starting lineups (against North Carolina) that their four best players were on the bench and they were going to be the reserves,” Iowa head coach Charlie Husak told WHO TV in Des Moines, Iowa. “It was very evident right away what was going on. They weren’t striving to win.”
By failing to score at least three runs against North Carolina, South Snohomish assured that Iowa would not advance to the semifinals. Iowa gave the powerful Washington squad its stiffest test of the postseason, but lost 4-3 on Sunday.
On Monday night, South Snohomish Little League president Jeff Taylor denied any wrongdoing by the team or head coach Fred Miller.
Little League International didn’t agree and on Monday issued a statement saying its tournament committee “received credible reports that some teams did not play with the effort and spirit appropriate for any Little League game.”
That spirit is summarized in the Little League Pledge, which is often recited by players and coaches before a tournament, and includes the following: “I will play and strive to win. But win or lose I will always do my best.”
After determining that South Snohomish did not uphold those ideals, Little League International denied South Snohomish its spot in the semifinals and ordered Washington to play Iowa again on Tuesday morning, with the winner claiming the semifinal berth.
South Snohomish protested the decision, but lost.
Iowa won the game 3-2.
Shortly afterward, Taylor released a statement thanking the community for the support shown to the South Snohomish players during “a very difficult and emotional time.”
“Our coach was faced with a decision that, in the bubble of intense competition, appeared to him to be in the best interest of our team,” Taylor wrote. “In hindsight, it is very likely he would have made a different choice. Though the decision that Coach Miller made did not violate the letter of the rules, I can see abundant evidence that it was not in line with the spirit of the game.”
Taylor added that “the decisions that have placed our team under scrutiny were decisions made by the coach. Our young ladies had no role in that. In fact, they have fought their hearts out to be in the World Series and nothing should take away from that accomplishment.”
South Snohomish has one more game to play. It faces the Europe-Africa representative, AVRS School Little League from Uganda, in the fifth-place game at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.
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