Sandbag Pool Play to play Lower Bracket on Sunday???

[ConorMacleod]

I think I came across something new here last weekend. I'm used to 12u 'B' talented teams registering as C teams so they can play easy competition and get another plastic trophy. But, I think I saw a team sandbag their pool play games to get into the lower bracket for Sunday so they could get a plastic trophy.

This 12U 'C' team enters tourney with a 20-5 record against C teams. They go 1-2 in pool play, losing 13-4 and 9-4, and winning 13-1. As it so happens, they actually got a bye in game 1 in the lower bracket, as four other teams went 0-3 in pool play.

I win my lower bracket game 1 on Sunday, and get paired up against this team. Their pitcher is very fast for 12U 'C', and they blow us away 14-0. They go on to win the championship game 14-1.

So, I ask you, did this team sandbag the pool play games knowing they could thump the lower bracket teams and get another trophy? The scores tell me yes. Can I prove it? Of course not. Maybe they had a couple players missing for a game or 2, maybe their two best pitchers were gone Saturday, maybe they all decided to do switch hitting and work on their slap game. Pick any excuse. I'm not buying any of them.

 

[canyonjoe]

In order to say the did, you would need to look at what teams beat them in pool.

We played a tournament recently with over 20 teams and our pool wound up with all four semi final teams in them. We went 1-2 and lost badly in 1 game. We run ruled the number one seed from another bracket on Sunday. We certainly didn't sandbag on Saturday.

I have seen many teams do it though.

 

[riseball]

This is an example of where it is great to have an experienced TD. My team played last weekend and stunk it up so bad on Saturday I thought we would be sent to the lower bracket. If the TD knows the teams they should be able to keep things on the up and up. But you always find some perennial B teams chasing plastic and then throw a fit at even the suggestion that they play where they belong.

 

[PA SB Dad]

We've never played in a tourney that had "gold" and "silver" brackets on Sundays, but if we did, I want us in the gold bracket, always. What does it mean to win the silver bracket? Best of the worst?

 

[FP26]

Exactly!!! We played in one last year. After Saturday they put 16 teams in the gold bracket and 14 teams in the silver bracket. We played poorly on Saturday and were placed in silver. We were able to win the silver but all four games we played were close. I think we were seeded properly. The difference of opinion I had was with our other coaches. They told people we "won". While I was happy with our performance on Sunday, we still finished 17th.

 

[canyonjoe]

We've never played in a tourney that had "gold" and "silver" brackets on Sundays, but if we did, I want us in the gold bracket, always. What does it mean to win the silver bracket? Best of the worst?

When you have more than 32 (or 16 at 10 and 12U) many don't want to have to play more than 4 games to win a tournament so it happens. We've even played with Platinum, Gold,Silver before. Any normal coach would never want to win the Silver over the gold.

 

[KCPRK]

I saw this as well. team goes 0-3 and gets blown away sat only to smoke everyone sunday. The teams that beat them were weaker teams to boot. This team didn't pitch their starting pitcher until sunday-she was present just didn't pitch.

On the other hand this past weekend one of my teams played sat against 3 very good teams and in the process was missing 2 players for graduations (siblings) and had an injury. Went 1-2 in all tight games. On Sunday the missing players were back and went 2-1. Circumstances.

 

[guero_gordo]

It's mildly irritating when A teams do this, but B and C are about experience and development, so to deliberately avoid playing the best teams out there seems pointless.

 

[Little Angels Softball]

I am not sure why anybody would want to be in a Silver bracket. The goal is to do well and missing the cut to at least half the other teams in a tourney would seem to go against that. I've seen everything in travel ball, though, so this wouldn't surprise me, either.

That said, I have seen good teams have bad days. I have had good teams that had bad days. There are also "Sunday teams" that may or not play their starters all the time in pool play but their best nine will flat kick your butt in elimination play. I also know teams that perform well under pressure and don't get as fired up when a early trip home isn't on the line.

Hopefully, one of the above is the case here.

 

[starsnuffer]

It's hard to say given the information listed. Most of the better teams don't necessarily "try" to win on Saturday, but rather try to play their roster and try out new plays and scenarios. Saturday only matters to those who might be allergic to getting up early on Sunday.

-W