Rules Committee Calls Michigan-UCLA Game a Tie
4/20/2000 12:00:00 AM | Softball
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Citing an early season memorandum on the illegality of game time limits in collegiate softball, the NCAA Softball Rules Committee today (Thursday, April 20) issued a ruling calling the Feb. 18, 2000, softball game between the University of Michigan and University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) a 4-4 tie at the end of six innings.
The ruling, distributed to the two universities by NCAA Softball Secretary Rules Editor Dee Abrahamson of Northern Illinois University, changes the 6-4, seven-inning Michigan victory to the tie finish. Michigan's season record is now 33-8-1 while UCLA is 32-6-1.
Played as part of the Feb. 17-20 Campbell/Cartier Classic hosted by San Diego State University, the Michigan-UCLA contest was, according to the Rules Committee, legally played through six innings with the score 4-4 at that point in play. A time limit imposed by officials at the Campbell/Cartier Classic prompted use of the tiebreaker rule at the start of the seventh inning of the game, an action in direct conflict with the NCAA memorandum.
The Softball Rules committee noted that under current collegiate softball rules, the tiebreaker is available for use only after seven or more complete innings. The Committee asked Michigan and UCLA officials to vacate the results and statistics of the illegally played tiebreaker seventh inning, calling the game a 4-4 tie after the sixth.
• Revised Boxscore
• Original Game Story
