This actually happened to my daughter’s 4th grade girls softball team. They were like the Bad News Bears, but when push came to shove, they managed to win the final tournament game by a few runs against the team that was unbeatable by anyone else, and were strong contenders to win.
Our girls beat the “unbeatables” by 2 runs at the end of the 10th inning, as was the customary inning for the score to be tallied in the books. After it was played, the commissioner said it was such a joy to watch the girls play, could they please play another inning because the time had passed by “so quickly”. So our girls agreed to play another inning, thinking that they would go home with the trophy as the best team that year.
They not only played one inning more, they played until the other team had more runs finally. It took 2 more innings for that to happen. After 12 innings, everyone was tired and very hungry. People were ready for this to be over. There were families with younger children in tow, and there were no more concessions opened,
Guess who took home the trophies for the best team? You guessed it. The team that hadn’t been beaten the entire season, until our little upstarts did.
We told our girls that this was a big life lesson. Sometimes the adults in charge cheat. We couldn’t change anything.
We all know who won the real first place trophy. Our girls did.
Changing the rules after play has started is cheating, and changing the rules after play has ended is even bigger cheating.
Our girls beat the “unbeatables” by 2 runs at the end of the 10th inning, as was the customary inning for the score to be tallied in the books
I've never heard such a thing. Youth games usually have an inning or time limit, or both. What do you mean by "customary"?