little league free inning

Question
I watched a 9-10 yr old girls softball game tonight.  The teams are allowed to play up to 5 innings or a 1 1/2 hour game, with a 5 run max per inning, per team.
After the first half of the fourth inning, there was only 3 minutes to go in the game, the score being 12 to 6.  They went ahead and played the last half of the 4th inning.  The lower scoring team was up to bat and scored 5 and then 6 runs. The umpire stated that she had called a free inning with unlimited runs, but told neither of the coaches at the beginning of the inning.  She allowed the lower team to score until they had 14 runs.  
The way I read the asa rule book, little league is allowed to play up to 6 innings.  Only the 6 inning can be one played for unlimited runs.  Therefor, shouldn't the 5th inning have been the only inning allowed to be played for unlimited runs.  Or shouldn't the umpire have advised each coach prior to the beginning of the inning that runs would be unlimited until 3 outs were had?

Answer
Thanks for the question!

In ASA, all softball games consist of 7 innings, not 6 (barring any time limit posed locally).  In ASA 10-U the offense can score up to 6 runs plus all runs scoring on continuous action.  So if the bases are loaded, and the offensive team has scored 5 runs in the inning, and the batter hits an inside the park homerun, then they would score 9 runs in the inning because the runner on third would be 6, on second 7, on first, 8 and the batter would be 9.  Any other rules are not ASA or they are local modifications.

The "open inning" concept is commonly used in Senior Softball because they can only score 5 runs period in an inning (no continuous action), and the only way to catch up at the end is to have an open inning with the 5 run restriction.  

I know I haven't given you a direct answer, but local rules need to be interpreted by league officials because they vary from town to town, state to state.

Good luck!