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.

First, some setup: Iowa defeated a team from Canada on Monday to finish pool play with a 3-1 record. Its only loss was to the team from Washington state, which faced North Carolina immediately after the Iowa-Canada game. If North Carolina defeated Washington, the teams would all finish tied atop the pool standings with 3-1 records, but only two teams would advance to the semifinals under a somewhat-convoluted tiebreaker (per WHO TV):

For the Central Iowa team to advance to the semifinals, they needed either the U.S. West team (undefeated 3-0) to win or score at least three runs vs. the U.S. Southeast team (2-1, a team Central Iowa already beat).

And of course, Washington neither won nor scored three runs in an 8-0 loss in which it was no-hit, advancing to the semifinals along with North Carolina.

At least that’s what it seemed at first.

Here’s the Des Moines Register:

Chris Chadd, president of Central Iowa Little League, said he believes the Washington team benched starters and ordered every player to bunt in an attempt to lose the game.

“It’s clear to everyone that they basically threw the game,” Chadd said.

Chadd said Washington’s players did not attempt to do anything beyond bunting.

“It’s not the girls’ fault,” Chadd said. “It’s the coaches… they should be disqualified.”

The outcome left the Iowans in a three-way tie in their bracket with North Carolina and Washington.

Immediately suspecting shenanigans, Iowa filed a protest first with Little League Softball World Series officials and then with Little League International, the sport’s governing body, which came upon a somewhat novel solution after determining that something was up with the way Washington lost to North Carolina: Instead of disqualifying Washington, it would make it play a one-game playoff against Iowa — the team it was trying to avoid — for the right to advance to the semifinals. That game is Tuesday at noon EDT.

“It was very evident when they did the starting lineups, their four best players were on the bench,” Iowa Coach Charlie Husak told WHO. “Their top four hitters were their subs the previous night when we played them. It was very evident right away what was going on.”

id LOVE to be at today's 1-game playoff to see how this one goes down.

No you wouldn't.

sure i would, asshole little league coaches amuse me.

Blame the system that rewards losing.

Losing on purpose is a virtue not a vice as long as it is part of a plan.

and, once again, adults screw up the youth sports experience for children.

I don't see the problem... losing on purpose got them closer to a championship so they would be idiots for not losing on purpose

one thing i always tried to coach the kids in our league is that you should relish the opportunities to face the best competition. you don't want to beat someone because their best pitcher wasn't available that day or because their best hitter was sick and couldn't make the game. you should WANT to line up against the best and get those kinds of opportunities because those are the moments that matter and that you will remember later on. purposely trying to avoid playing the best teams in a tournament does a disservice to the kids. those kids should have been coached up to WANT to face that team again, not coached down to try to avoid it.

As long as everyone gets a trophy at the end, it's ok.

Another thing wrong with this dumb article: Iowa and Washington were in the same round-robin group. If both advanced to the semi-finals, they would not play each other. They would play teams from a separate round robin. It would not make sense to play each other again. And even if they did, why wouldn't Washington want to play a team they already beat (regardless of today's outcome)?

The whole thing sounds like whiny bitching.

they could have eventually met for the championship. apparently Iowa was a favorite going in, as was Washington. the Washington coaches likely did not enjoy playing someone they couldn't drop the 10-run rule on (having beaten iowa by 1 run earlier in pool play) and didn't relish having to face them again for the championship. so instead of worrying about the game that they were playing that day, or even looking ahead and worrying about their likely semi-final opponent, they chose to look 2 games ahead, thought they were clever and would tweak the brackets to their favor so they could waltz to the championship without breaking a sweat.

It doesn't matter. If Iowa wins the tourney, every other team they beat in the knockout rounds should complain. They did not earn their place in the round based on the rules the other teams had to abide by. Iowa left their fate in other team's hands. It's their fault. The whole thing is a farce perpetrated by whiny coaches on Iowa.