The Little League World Series erupted into scandal on Monday when the Southeast team shockingly defeated the undefeated U.S. West team 8-0 -- wow, underdogs, sports are great!
But not so fast.
An undefeated team rolling over to take a no-hit loss sounds a little too good to be true, right?
Yes, exactly.
The West SAT THEIR STARTERS and BUNTED THE ENTIRE GAME to secure a loss, so that another competitive team, the Central Iowa All-Stars, would be eliminated. Central Iowa only needed the West to score three runs or win.
From the Central Iowa coach, whose girls caught on to the big bad West's strategy pretty quickly (WHO-TV):
"It took about a half inning for the girls to catch on. We were trying to keep it from them, but you could see when they caught on that the tears started to pile up. It was pretty emotional."
Seems like a great evil plan on the West's part. Sports is all strategy ... however, you can't spell sportsmanship without sports. Little League officials decided this is all ridiculous, and are having Central Iowa face the West in a single elimination playoff game to determine who moves on.
UPDATE:
The final score of the West vs. Central Iowa elimination game...
Pool B Play In Game final: West 2, Central 3. Central (Iowa) plays 4pm PDT on ESPN2.
— LL Softball WS (@LLsoftball) August 18, 2015
Wipe away the tears, Central Iowa, because you're moving on! The good guys don't always finish last.
(h/t Deadspin)
★★★
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