It’s game on again for Tulsa National Little League after a local judge granted a temporary restraining order, allowing the club to compete for a spot in the 2026 Little League World Series.
The team had previously been disqualified from the Southwest Region tournament after other teams filed a protest, claiming it had an ineligible player on the roster. Judge Ryan Luna’s ruling means Tulsa is now scheduled to face Texas West’s Boerne Little League on Tuesday, August 11, in Waco, Texas, with the winner advancing to the annual Williamsport event.
“Judge Luna made the right decision to give the boys an opportunity to play the game and decide everything on the field,” the team’s attorney said in a statement to News on 6 Tulsa. “These boys are ball players and ball players do just that — play ball.”
The statement continued, “Legally, I find it surprising that an esteemed organization would withhold the protest documentation from this ball club and decide their fate in a cloak of darkness. Simply put, the law does not allow for arbitrary and capricious actions.”
Boerne defeated Louisiana’s Ascension Parish Little League, 4-1, on Monday, August 10, in what would have been the championship game had Little League International’s ban held up.
“Following a recent protest related to the eligibility of players on the Tulsa National Little League Baseball team, the Little League® International Tournament Committee has determined that a player who participated on the team during the International Tournament is ineligible,” Little League International said in a statement on Monday explaining why it had banned the Tulsa team.
The organization explained that it made its decision, “to uphold the integrity of the international tournament and provide an opportunity for every team, community, and, most importantly, child, to have a fair and equitable experience … Little League International is committed to supporting all children impacted by this decision and will continue to provide support and administrative guidance to the families in Tulsa National Little League.”
The ineligible player and additional details around the initial ban have not been released.
Further complicating the situation, Softball on SI reports that Boerne does not plan to participate in Tuesday’s game, having already left the site of the tournament to return home and prepare for the Little League World Series bid they believed they had already clinched.
News 4 San Antonio reports that Boerne has the “full backing” of Little League International’s legal team. Boerne plans to leave for Williamsport at the end of this week.
The Little League World Series will run from August 19 to 30, featuring 10 international teams and 10 representing different regions from the United States.
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