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‘I Think It’s Ridiculous’: New Canaan Girl, 10, Ousted from Softball Tournament Because She’s Too Young
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Softball officials ousted a New Canaan girl from a state Little League tournament Tuesday after it emerged that she was too young to qualify officially for 11- and 12-year-old division play. Hours after Carolina Welch, 10, helped lead the New Canaan 12-and-under All Stars to a 13-6 win at Waveny Park against rival Darien, the rising Saxe Middle School sixth-grader received the news that the game itself (where she pitched four dominant innings) would be forfeited as a loss, and that she would be ineligible for the rest of the tournament. “I’m upset because I’ve always played in the summer, so now I don’t get to play in the summer on a team,” Carolina (or ‘Lina,’ as she’s known) said Wednesday evening from the sidelines at Waveny’s Orchard Field, as her teammates battled Darien in this best-of-3 round. The girls had her uniform number 22 drawn in marker on one shoulder, and ‘X’ the Roman numeral for 10 (Lina’s age) on the other. The “Majors” division in which Carolina plays admits 10- to 12-year-old girls for regular season play, but for Little League-sanctioned state tournaments such as the one that started this week, according to the Williamsport, Pa.-based organization’s rules, only 11- and 12-year-old girls can play in this division.