Question about a tie in pool play

[Cecelia]

Yesterday my daughter's team and another team each won all three of their pool play games. To break the tie, they used the run differential method. Biggest run differential got the #1 seed in bracket play.

Our third game was a close one, with the score tied 10-10 in the last inning. We managed to hold the other team to no runs and got our last up to bat. We had one out when we scored the "winning" run. At that time, the umpire ended the game and declared our team the winner.

And you know what happened next, right? The other team that won their 3 games beat us in run differential and got the #1 seed. I'd like to know if this is a common practice. It seems to me that we should have been allowed to finish our half of the inning, and allowed to score as many runs as we could. But that's obviously now how it was done. It doesn't seem very fair to me.

Is this just the way it is?

 

[CoreSoftball20]

Why would you be allowed to keep hitting after you scored a go ahead run in the bottom of the last inning?

 

[riseball]

Head to head competition should have been a factor at some point.

 

[YOCOACH]

Yesterday my daughter's team and another team each won all three of their pool play games. To break the tie, they used the run differential method. Biggest run differential got the #1 seed in bracket play.

Our third game was a close one, with the score tied 10-10 in the last inning. We managed to hold the other team to no runs and got our last up to bat. We had one out when we scored the "winning" run. At that time, the umpire ended the game and declared our team the winner.

And you know what happened next, right? The other team that won their 3 games beat us in run differential and got the #1 seed. I'd like to know if this is a common practice. It seems to me that we should have been allowed to finish our half of the inning, and allowed to score as many runs as we could. But that's obviously now how it was done. It doesn't seem very fair to me.

Is this just the way it is?

Not around here. If the seeding is done by run differential, the HC may request that the inning play out and if the umpires refuse, he/she may protest the game to the TD which usually requires an immediate response so the game may continue.

That being said, I have yet to see a protest filed let alone even hearing about one. I think that would be considered beyond poor taste and sportsmanship to press for it.

 

[crystlemc]

If the home team is up and the winning run scores, game over. Always.

Let me clarify, in 10+ years of my daughters playing travel ball, I have never seen run differential used iin a tourney. The standard is record, runs allowed, runs earned. I know head to head comes in to play occasionally, but not all that often. Usually only if it is a smaller tournament.

 

[Cecelia]

If the home team is up and the winning run scores, game over. Always.

Wouldn't this mean, then, that in pool play where run differential determines the #1 seed in bracket play, it would always be best to be the visiting team, and not the home team, in the event of a tie? The visiting team would be allowed to score as many runs as they could in the final inning, whereas the home team would only be allowed to score one run more than the visiting team.

It may well be "just the way it is." But it still seems inherently unfair somehow.

 

[Cecelia]

If the home team is up and the winning run scores, game over. Always.

Let me clarify, in 10+ years of my daughters playing travel ball, I have never seen run differential used iin a tourney. The standard is record, runs allowed, runs earned. I know head to head comes in to play occasionally, but not all that often. Usually only if it is a smaller tournament.

Is there a reason for this? If the bracket is determined by run differential, how is this fair to the home team in a tie game?

 

[Cecelia]

Why would you be allowed to keep hitting after you scored a go ahead run in the bottom of the last inning?

To increase the run differential!

 

[crystlemc]

Like I said, I have never seen run differential used as a tie breaker in a tourney. I guess my opinion would be, if the coach is aware of the tie breaker policy before the tourney, then there is really nothing to complain about. He knew going in. If he didn't know, well, then he didn't do his job. And I am not trying to be rdue, but not much in life is fair.

Every coach has their personal preference on home or away. Each has its pros and cons in every game situation. All you can hope for is that you end up on the right side of that decision.

 

[CycloneSoftball22]

Could have just not given up 10 runs to begin with. Problem solved