MSLL Rules

The rules used in all MSLL divisions are governed by the Little League Baseball Rulebook. MSLL has supplemental rules for some divisions to implement league specific rules. Any item not covered by the MSLL rules documents should default to the Little League rules.

MSLL Division Rules Documents

Use the links below to view the applicable MSLL division rules. For pitch count please refer to link below as well. This is the most up-to-date information on pitch count:

Playoff Tie Breaker Rule

In the Majors and Minors division the playoffs start with round robin play. Teams score 2 points for a win, 0 for a loss and 1 for a tie. Extra innings may be played in a tied if they can be started with the division time limits – otherwise the game will end in a tie.

If two or more teams are tied in the standings at the end of round robin play the standard Little League tie breaker process is used. The following steps are applied in order to break the tie:

 

      1. The first tiebreaker is the result of the head-to-head match-up(s) during round robin play. In the case of a tie between three or more teams the head to head match up of each of those teams is examined. A team can only advance using this tie-breaker if they have defeated all other teams involved in the tie.
      2. If the results of the head-to-head match-up(s) during round robin play of the teams that are involved in the tie cannot break the tie (because no team defeated each of the other teams in the tie each time they played, or because no team has defeated all of the other teams involved in the tie in everyone of the pool play games played between those teams, or because the teams involved in the tie did not play one another an equal number of times during pool play), then the tie is broken using the Runs-Allowed Ratio.
      3. The next tie breaker is the Runs Allowed Ratio. This is calculated by the total number of runs given up in all round robin play games played by that team, divided by the number of half-innings played on defense in round robin play games by that team. This provides the number of runs give up per half-inning by that team: the Runs-Allowed Ratio. The team with the lowest Runs-Allowed-Ratio will advance from the tie-breaker.
      4. The Runs-Allowed-Ratio is used to advance one team only. The breaking of further ties once one teams has advanced reverts to the beginning of this process (starting by examining the head to head records of the teams that remain in the tie-breaker).

Example 1: Three teams are tied with identical records for first place at the end of round robin play, and one team is to advance. Teams A, B and C played against each other once in round robin play. Team A won all of its games against Team B and Team C during pool play. Result – Team A advances, while Team B and Team C are eliminated.

 

Example 2: Three teams are tied with identical records for first place at the end of round play, and two teams are to advance. Teams A, B and C played against each other once in round robin play. Team A won all of its games against Team B and Team C during pool play. Result – Team A advances, which then creates a two-way tie between Team B and Team C. That tie then is broke by reverting to the head to head match up between teams B and C

Example 3: Teams A, B and C are tied after round robin play and two teams are to advance. Teams A, B and C played each other once in round robin play and each won against one team and lost to the other of the teams in the tie. Therefore head to head match up can not be used to break the tie. The process moves on to the Runs Allowed Ratio. Team A gave up 28 runs in 24 defensive innings, Team B gave up 35 runs in 22 defensive innings and Team C gave up 20 runs in 23 defensive innings. The Runs Allowed Ratio for each team is Team A = 1.17, Team B=1.59, Team C=0.87. Result – Team C advances based on having the lowest Runs Allowed Ratio. The further tie between Team A and Team B is now determined by head to head match up between A and B.