Little League International ruled that a player on the Tulsa National Little League team was ineligible for competition and removed the Oklahoma entrant from its Baseball World Series qualifying tournament Monday.
Tulsa National was representing its state in the Southwest Region Tournament in Waco, Texas. The team’s most recent game was a 3-2 win over Louisiana on Sunday to advance to the championship game.
But on Monday came word that Tulsa National had used an ineligible player during the regional tournament. The governing body ruled the Louisiana game a forfeit, scrapped a planned lower-bracket final featuring Texas West and instead sent those two teams to a one-game championship.
“Following a recent protest related to the eligibility of players on the Tulsa National Little League Baseball team, the Little League International Tournament Committee has determined that a player who participated on the team during the International Tournament is ineligible,” the governing body’s statement read.
“As a result, the committee has removed Tulsa National Little League from the Little League Baseball Southwest Region Tournament and declared its previous game a forfeit. The decision of the Little League International Tournament Committee is final and binding.”
The player was not named and no further information was given regarding how eligibility rules were broken. Player eligibility is not only based on age but also proof of school enrollment or habitation in a league’s city or area.
Earlier in the tournament, Boerne Little League (representing Texas West) filed a complaint that included four alleged violations by Tulsa National, concerning not only league eligibility but also sibling participation, pitching more than one game in a day and the “completing a game rule” governing when and how games can be called early.
The protests even called into question whether Tulsa National conducted a valid season for their Challenger Division, a special needs-focused league.
Further, they alleged their original complaint was denied and accused an administrator with access to the scorekeeping platform GameChanger of deleting and falsifying Tulsa National’s data.
On Monday afternoon, Boerne Little League defeated Louisiana’s Ascension Parish Little League 4-1 in the championship game to qualify for their second LLBWS in three years.
Remarkably, Tulsa National also had been disqualified from Southwest Region qualifying for the Little League Softball World Series. The Little League International Tournament Committee “determined that the adult volunteers and parents did not provide sufficient documentation to verify that all players are eligible to participate in the International Tournament based on either their school enrollment or bona fide habitation within the league’s official boundaries.”
–Field Level Media
