High school baseball team forfeits over bogus soft toss rule

A high school baseball game between two highly-ranked teams was canceled on Friday and is now under protest after one team was alleged to have violated soft toss rules before the game.

Newbury Park (Calif.) High School, ranked No. 22 in the nation and No. 9 in California by MaxPreps, was set to take on rival Thousand Oaks (Calif.) High School, ranked No. 52 in the nation and No. 14 in California, for first place in the Marmonte League, a highly competitive league in Ventura County, Calif.

The game was never played after Newbury Park was found to have violated a league rule by taking soft toss from straight on prior to the game. The league belongs to the CIF (California Interscholastic Federation), which prevents teams from taking batting practice prior to games. Per the rule book, “batting practice” encompasses soft toss from straight on. Soft toss pitched from a side angle is OK.

According to a source, Newbury Park was doing some soft toss using foam balls before the game. LBS was told that someone on the Thousand Oaks side recorded video of the soft toss and informed a Thousand Oaks official, leading to the forfeit.

The LA Times says the game has been canceled for the time being, while LBS was told Newbury Park currently loses the game in a forfeit. The Marmonte League will vote whether to overturn the forfeit. Newbury Park believes they did not violate the rule.

We did not accept the forfeit at today’s game against Thousand Oaks. The protest has been submitted to the Marmonte League .

— NPHS Baseball (@NpBase) April 22, 2017

Thousand Oaks is coached by former longtime Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Jack Wilson, who says he wanted to play the game under protest. He reportedly was told by a Newbury Park official to either play without the game under protest or not play at all.

Newbury Park coach Curtis Scott was unable to comment to Larry Brown Sports because the game is under protest.

This is not the first time this rule has gotten a team in trouble. We covered a similar story back in 2014 and were told the reason the rule is in place is to prevent the team that has to travel from being at a disadvantage the day of a game. A Southern California school was also busted for this same rule last year and forced to forfeit, so this would be the third time in four years that the rule could cost a team a game.

Even if that’s in the rules, it’s bogus that a team would refuse to play a game because of it. You’re not winning or losing because of some pregame soft toss. It’s disappointing that a former MLB player would choose to accept a win in that manner rather than let the competition be decided on the field.

Photo: Tage Olsin/Wikimedia