In a move that hasn’t happened for more than half a decade, Premier Girls Fastpitch (PGF) has removed a team from the rest of the play for the week and suspended the coaches and players for the rest of the tournament.

(Note: to prevent undue and unwarranted attention and embarrassment to the young players on the suspended team, the details—including the organization, team name, coaches and players involved—will not be included in this story.

The goal of this article is to not disparage, but to prevent these experiences from happening in the future by noting how harsh the penalties can and will be.)

The suspension occurred due to a roster issue where a player competed last week on an 18U team and was subsequently told that she couldn’t play for her organization’s 14U team this week.

However, she was not listed on the team’s roster and did see the field on games leading up to Thursday action, forcing the forfeit according to a source close to PGF.

Last night during a bracket game involving this squad, a protest was filed by the opposing team. A PGF employee subsequently walked onto the field when the game was headed to extra innings and called the game in the middle of play. Both teams exited the field, and the offending team was told at that time it was suspended for the rest of the tournament.

“It was tough,” one observer noted. “There were players on the that team sobbing heavily knowing their tournament run was over.”

The organization head and head coach were subsequently called and told of the move. The reaction was positive in light of the punishment.

“Each of them was understanding and recognized the error, aware of the mistake made and that the consequences were warranted,” Dan Hay, the President of PGF said earlier on Friday.

The question was raised as to how the previous results of the suspended team would be looked at including past games played. A coach for the team that had lost earlier to the suspended team inquired if the loss would be rescinded, but it was determined that no action could be taken.

“You cannot go backwards,” Hay continued. “If this had happened and been brought to our awareness sooner, more could have been done but once the second game was played, we couldn’t go backwards.”

The next team on the schedule to be played was notified that it won by forfeit and would continue in the winner’s bracket.

The question was asked: How did the ineligible player’s situation come to light?

“A player on the team they were playing against knew her,” a source who was at Thursday’s game noted. The opposing player told her coaches and that started the process to have the game called and the team suspended.”

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Softball