Little League team accused of throwing World Series game

The president of a team from Iowa is alleging that – during pool play at the ongoing Little League Softball World Series in Portland, Ore. – a team from Washington state benched its starters and threw a game against a team from North Carolina in order to avoid a rematch with the Iowa team.

Because Snohomish, Iowa and North Carolina all went 3-1 in pool play with 1-1 records against each opponent, a runs allowed average would have been the tiebreaker to determine which two advance to the semifinals.

Not just a typical 8-0 loss. Its only loss was to the team from Washington state, which faced North Carolina immediately after the Iowa-Canada game.

Des Moines NBC affiliate WHO-TV added Washington coaches sat their four best players, had players bunt with two strikes, and told them to swing at balls in the dirt. “It’s not the girls’ fault …” “It’s the coaches … they should be disqualified”.

Instead of disqualification, Iowa and Washington will play for the second spot on Tuesday in another crowning achievement of adults in youth sports.

According to the Seattle Times, the president of the Washington team accused of throwing the games says they are not guilty of any wrongdoing, saying South Snohomish (Washington) coach Fred Miller chose to rest some starters who had been playing in tournaments for more than three months. “It was very evident right away what was going on”.

The Little League Softball World Series championship game will be held on Wednesday. “It wasn’t a game that we absolutely had to win and the Central Iowa team took exception to that because the outcome was that they got knocked out”. “We were trying to keep it from them, but you could see when they caught on that the tears started to pile up and it was pretty emotional”.

The Central Iowa team filed a protest with the league.