2014 Tournament of Champions

Schedules Game Scores

Major (MJ) Pool Play / Minor (MN) Pool Play
MJ Championship Bracket / MN Championship Bracket

TOC Website

www.northshorell.com (Look for “Tournament of Champions” link)

Contacts

TOC Host – Scott Brohaugh – NBLL ()
TOC Scheduler – Scott Brohaugh – NBLL ()
TOC Information Coordinator – David Bartnik – NSLL ()

Fields

Bastyr (BAS) / 14500 Juanita Dr NE
Kenmore, WA 98028-4966
Northshore Athletic Fields (NAF) / 14600 NE 145th St
Woodinville, WA 98072
Woodinville Sports Fields (WSF) / 13209 NE 175th Street
Woodinville, WA 98072

Both teams are responsible for setting up the fields, clean up of litter after the game, raking in holes and putting away the fields (When no game follows).

Preparation depends on game location per the following instructions:

·  At Bastyr – Code for shed behind dugouts is 4438:

o  Remove base plugs and install break-away bases.

o  Use template to chalk batter boxes.

o  Chalk base lines through first and third bases to the outfield grass.

o  Chalk two coach boxes.

·  At Northshore Athletic Fields (NAF):

o  First games of the day should be prepped by NAF maintenance. For follow-on games:

o  Refresh break-away bases.

o  Use template to chalk batter boxes.

o  Chalk base lines through first and third bases to the outfield grass.

o  Chalk two coach boxes.

o  Chalk first base running lane.

2014 Tournament of Champions

·  At Woodinville Sports Fields (WSF) – Code for lockbox and portable mound located in third base dugout (Brown box on WSF-2E/-1W, orange box on WSF-2W/-1E) is 5432

o  Remove base plugs and mount break-away bases.

o  Place cones at 200 feet.

o  Place portable mound located in dugout on field 46 feet from home plate.

o  Gatorade, food, gum and sunflower seeds are STRICTLY FORBIDDEN at WSF. Use of these items could result in cancellation of NBLL and WLL’s field permit. Please do your part to keep these fields clean.

Rain Line Information

Bastyr (BAS) / Game time decision by managers
Northshore Athletic Fields (NAF) / (425) 486-7333
Woodinville Sports Fields (WSF) / Game time decision by managers

Tournament Format

Round robin pool play followed by a single elimination championship round. Teams are seeded into four Majors and Minors pools for round robin pool play, with each pool consisting of four or five teams. All teams are guaranteed to play at least four games.

At Majors, the #16 and #17 seeds will have a play-in game on Saturday, June 7th. All other teams will advance to the “Sweet Sixteen” Championship Round to be played on Sunday, June 8th.

At Minors, the four teams with the best win-loss records in each pool, will advance to the “Sweet Sixteen” Championship Round to be played on Sunday, June 8th.

Seeding for the Majors and Minors “Sweet Sixteen” Championship Round will be determined first by wins, and second by lowest run differential (Runs Allowed / Innings Defended). Seed positions will be adjusted up or down by one position as necessary to avoid two teams from the same league playing each other in the first round of the “Sweet Sixteen” Championship Round.

The participating leagues and number of teams are as follows:

North Bothell (NB) / 4 MJ / 5 MN
Northlake (NL) / 4 MJ / 4 MN
Northshore (NS) / 4 MJ / 5 MN
Woodinville (W) / 5 MJ / 6 MN

There are a total of 17 Majors and 20 Minors teams. The rest of this document addresses the details of the tournament format, tie-breaker algorithm as recommended by Little League and the tournament schedule.

2014 Tournament of Champions

Tournament Schedule

Home team is the second team listed in Pool Play round. Home team in “Sweet Sixteen” Championship Round will be decided by a coin toss:

Pool Play:

Wednesday 5/28 through Friday 6/6.

Championship Series:

Majors Play-In Game – Saturday, June 7th (Winner moves on)

Sweet Sixteen – Sunday, June 8th (Winners move on).

Quarter-Finals – Monday, June 9th (Winners move on).

Semi-Finals –Wednesday, June 11th (Winners losers move on).

Finals – Thursday, June 12th (2 games for Majors Minors for 1st/2nd place and 3rd/4th place).

Majors Pool

·  Four pools (Hank Aaron, Joe Dimaggio, Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth).

·  Three pools will have four teams. One pool will have five teams.

·  Each league shall rank (Seed) its teams with #1 being the highest ranked (Best team).

·  Each pool will be equal in weight in terms of seeding. This means that if you add up the rankings of each team in each pool (Sum of seeds), all of the pools should be close to equivalent:

Pool / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / sum of seeds
Hank Aaron / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 10
Joe Dimaggio / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 10
Jackie Robinson / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 10
Babe Ruth / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 15

·  There will be 28 games played in the Majors Pool Play round.

·  #16 and #17 seeds will play-in to “Sweet Sixteen” Championship Round.

·  All other teams from each pool will advance to the “Sweet Sixteen” Championship Round.

·  “Sweet Sixteen” Championship round will consist of sixteen teams playing a single-elimination tournament with a championship and third place game.

2014 Tournament of Champions

Minors Pool

·  Four pools (Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, Nolan Ryan, Cy Young).

·  All pools will have five teams each.

·  Each league shall rank (Seed) its teams with #1 being the highest ranked (Best team).

·  Each pool will be equal in weight in terms of seeding. This means that if you add up the rankings of each team in each pool (Sum of seeds), all of the pools should be close to equivalent:

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / sum of seeds
Don Drysdale / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 15
Sandy Koufax / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 15
Nolan Ryan / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 15
Cy Young / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 6 / 16

·  There will be 40 games played in the Minors Pool Play round.

·  Top four teams from each pool will advance to “Sweet Sixteen” Championship Round.

·  “Sweet Sixteen” Championship round will consist of sixteen teams playing a single-elimination tournament with a championship and third place game.

Tie Games

Ties will be allowed in pool play and are counted as .5 win and .5 loss. Games have been scheduled to allow extra time to finish a game. Within reason, all games may continue beyond 2.5 hours as long as you have light and it is safe to play.

Rescheduling Games due to Rain, School Activities, etc.

During pool play, a scheduled game that is rained out and that cannot be made up will be scored as a tie. No runs allowed or innings defended will be charged to either team and it will be accepted as a days rest. During the “Sweet Sixteen” Championship Round, rain outs that cannot be made up will be decided by a coin flip. Do everything possible, keeping safety as your number one priority, to avoid a rain out in the “Sweet Sixteen” Championship Round (i.e. move to a school field, do your best to get four innings in, etc.).

Due to the number of games to play and the limited field availability, your ability to reschedule a game for any reason may be very limited. For the TOC, the minimum number of players necessary to start a game is nine. So, if you can field nine players, your team can play the game.

2014 Tournament of Champions

Dugouts

Home teams will occupy the 3rd base dugout. In pool play, the home team is the second team listed on the schedule. In the “Sweet Sixteen” Championship Round, the home team will be decided by a coin flip.

It is the responsibility of both teams to clean the dugouts and make sure the spectator area is cleared of trash after their game.

Tie-Breaker Algorithm

At the end of pool play, if two or more teams have the same win-loss record, the tie will be broken as follows:

1.  If two teams are tied:

  1. Head-to-head record.
  2. Lowest overall run differential (Runs allowed / Innings Defended).
  3. Coin flip.

2.  If three teams are tied (Note: After one team has broken the tie, the two remaining teams start at step 1):

  1. Head-to-head record.
  2. Lowest overall run differential (Runs allowed / Innings Defended).
  3. Coin flip.

i)  Each team is assigned a coin.

ii)  Odd flip out is eliminated.

Information regarding “Lowest Run Differential” obtained from the Little League website:

If there are two or more teams, and no clear victor can be determined through head-to-head competition, then the total number of defensive runs given up in all games, divided by the number of innings played on defense, is computed for each team involved in the tie. The team with the lowest "run differential" will advance.

NOTE: If a team only plays part of a half-inning on defense before the game is ended, that partial inning will count as a full half-inning for the purpose of computing run differential.

Awards, Ceremonies Decorations

Northshore Athletic Fields (NAF) should be decorated for the Championship games as time and budget allows. There will be award ceremonies after each Championship and consolation game:

·  Trophies will be awarded to players for 1st and 2nd place for both Majors and Minors divisions.

·  Medals will be awarded to players for 3rd and 4th place for both Majors and Minors divisions.

·  Pins will be given to every player that participates in the tournament.

·  The total cost of awards and trophies will be split between all leagues participating in the TOC.

2014 Tournament of Champions

Game Score Pitching Reports

1. Game reports must include game number, date, field, team names, score and innings defended for both teams. Pitching reports will list pitchers in the order in which they pitch. The report must include pitcher jersey number, pitcher age, pitch count and pitcher last name. Catchers will be listed in the order in which they catch. Format for the game results and pitching reports will be emailed to all managers prior to the start of the tournament.

2.  Visiting and home team managers must agree on ALL OF THE ABOVE BEFORE LEAVING THE FIELD.

3.  During pool play and championship play, the WINNING team manager is responsible for e-mailing complete game reports for both teams to the TOC information coordinator (David Bartnik – ) by 10:00PM the night of the game. Failure to do so could result in the winning team having to forfeit 6-0 with 6 innings defended to the losing team. Missing game reports will be submitted to the TOC information coordinator as soon as possible.

4.  Game results and pitching reports will be posted to the tournament web page nightly, allowing managers to check who pitched and their next available pitching date by clicking on the game link. For any unreported games that resulted in forfeit, the scorebooks will be presented by each team to the opposing manager to confirm the forfeit pitch counts plus eligible pitchers at the start of the following game, or will result in a forfeit.

5.  Every manager is responsible for checking the TOC website to ensure their game information is correct. Game report discrepancies need to be discussed with the winning team. If necessary, the winning team will send a game report clearly indicating REVISED with an explanation to the TOC information coordinator. Pool Play and “Sweet Sixteen” Championship Round play summary discrepancies need to be reported immediately to the TOC information coordinator.

6.  Pitching violations:

a)  Exceeding the maximum pitch count in a game or not adhering to the days rest requirement is a pitching violation and is charged to the responsible Manager. TOC committee standard punishment for Manager rule violations shall apply:

i)  First offense, manager receives a warning.

ii)  Second offense, manager is suspended for one game.

iii)  Third offense, manager is suspended for remainder of the TOC.

b)  Pitcher to catcher is a pitching violation if the pitcher has thrown more than 40 pitches in a game.

c)  Catcher to pitcher is a pitching violation if the catcher has caught four or more innings.

d)  Will result in forfeiture of the game in which the violation occurred if the violation is not discovered until after the game has completed. A game forfeiture is reported as a 6-0 loss with six innings defended.

e)  If discovered during the game, the game will revert back to the point at which the violation occurred (Inning, score, field position, etc.), and play will resume with an eligible pitcher. Pitches pitched by pitchers from the non-offending team while an illegal pitcher was being used, will not count against their pitches pitched for that game.

Tournament Rules

The tournament will be played under regular season rules. Umpires will officiate games based on the 2014 Little League (LL) Baseball (BB) official regulations and official playing rules (Green book). In addition, the rules below will be enforced:

2014 Tournament of Champions

Common Rules for Majors and Minors

1.  Little League approved composite bats are allowed for play. All managers are required to carry a listing of Little League approved bats with them at all times. Failure to do so could result in a player’s composite bat being removed from the game.