Mandatory Play Requirement
Question
There is a Indonesian Little League baseball turnament now. We just had a case on last game. The losing team made an appeal that the winning team was breaching the rules of Mandatory Play Requirement because one of their player only played for one down and one at bat. The scorer agreed with the appeal..but the winning team also made counter appeal that the losing team also did breaching that rule. Again the scorer agreed with that appeal. I thought it happened due to lack of experience from the manager of both team so they could not manage the substitution flow or they just do not understand the rule.
Question : what is the status of the game? Could we consider the game as a normal game? Or should we consider the game as a forfeit game with both team as a loser?
Hope you could help with the answer soon, because the turnament will end by this coming Sunday. Thank you
Answer
I would probably rule this as a normal game, but I don't know if the league has a specific penalty for a team not reaching the mandatory playing time requirement.
Under no circumstances should both teams be the loser. Possibly, the game should pick back up and play additional innings until the two players who didn't reach playing time requirements play enough. Typically in a tournament though, there isn't time for this.
Hope this helps!
Brian
Foul tip
Getting Cut from the High School baseball team