STATUS UPDATE: Surprisingly, the Warriors won this appeal!
The Lockport Tournament distributed its rules in an email on July 8th. I printed a copy of those rules and referred to them throughout tonight's game. The rules state that "There are no pitching restrictions at the 14U level. Please keep the best interest of all pitchers' health and safety in mind."
During the first inning, I was handed a packet of tournament information...which included the pitching and scoring logs as well as a copy of the tournament rules. Naturally, I assumed that these rules would match the ones distributed in the email which also matched the rules posted on the tournament's website. Apparently, I was mistaken.
Several of the rules have changed. And, the "new" rules were just recently placed on the tournament's website--within the past day or so.
Now, pitchers are limited to 14 innings for the tournament. Had that been the case before tonight's game had started, we wouldn't have used our pitchers in the same manner. For instance, we certainly wouldn't have pitched Cody Rutledge in the final inning of a game in which we were leading by 15 runs! I've filed a protest regarding this...but chances are that it will be declined (just as when we appealed getting a 4 seed after beating the 2 and 3 seeds outright in pool play in Palos).
In any event, the organization and facilities provided by this tournament have been severely lacking so far. Hopefully, things will improve as we proceed through the tournament.
2011 Chicagoland Tournament Champions & 2011 Lombard Tournament Champions!
