By Dave Byrne
New Era Correspondent
The scoreboard said Strasburg-Willow Street won the game.
But tournament rules said otherwise.
A dispute over the roster the White Sox submitted for the New Era Tournament forced commissioners to overturn Strasburg-Willow Street’s apparent 8-6 victory over Lititz VFW in Friday’s Junior-Midget quarterfinal at Mount Joy’s Kunkle Field.
Instead, Lititz VFW will advance to Monday’s semifinals after being awarded a victory by forfeit when commissioners ruled SWS used an ineligible player.
The controversy unfolded in the fifth inning. With his team trailing 4-1, Lititz VFW coach Dave Erb questioned the eligibility of one of the players in the game for SWS.
The SWS roster submitted to the New Era by the Penn Manor League was consulted, and it was determined the player in question was not on it.
In fact, six SWS players who appeared in Friday’s game were not listed on the roster.
The New Era Tournament’s on-site commissioners, Curt Aspril and Bill Reuter, reviewed the facts and determined SWS was not in compliance with tournament eligibility rules.
“The Strasburg/Willow Street team had six players who participated in the game who were not on the official roster submitted to the New Era Tournament by their league president,” explained Reuter after the game. “Warwick (Lititz VFW) is declared a forfeit winner, 7-0.”
After a half-hour delay, the commissioners allowed the game to continue to cover the possibility a complete roster had been submitted but was not at the field.
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VFW rallied from a 6-1 deficit to tie the game in its final at-bat in the seventh, but was unable to push another run across in two extra innings.
Instead, it was SWS that plated two runs in the eighth inning.
But the outcome was not allowed to stand.
New Era Tournament director Bill Bert said this morning that a clerical error was responsibile for the incorrect roster’s submission.
But he said the forfeit will stand.
“After investigating the matter last night and this morning, we have determined there is no reason to overturn the forfeit,” Bert said. “Because players who were not on the official roster submitted by the league were used in the game.”
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