Tournament Tie-Breaker Strategy
By: Coach EOK... here's the deal. I coach a group of 8 year olds. In a tournament a couple weekends ago, we were denied a trip to the championship rounds because of the tie-breaker rules. Another team moved on, despite being a much worse team, due to these rules. The tie-breakers were:
1) head-to-head (which didn't apply - we never played the other team)
2) least runs alowed (they allowed 21, we allowed 25)
3) run differential (we were +15, they were -5)
We each had one loss, ours was by 1 run in extra innings, theirs was by 15 runs (they were mercied). The teams they beat were a combined 1-5, the teams we beat were a combined 4-2. We were gyped out of a finals appearance, but that's the way the rules read. (BTW, the team that made it over us was mercied in their next game 22-0)
Anyway, we have another tournament this weekend with the same tie-breaker rules. My question is... does it make sense to always want to be the AWAY team, just in case we lose, our opponent will get 1 fewer inning in which to score runs?
Am I missing something? Should I go ahead and request being the visitor if we win the coin toss?