Rain pushes 11-year-old LL finale to tonight

Rain and lightning Tuesday night forced the postponement of the District 3 Little League 11-year-old division championship between Clovis American and Clovis Zia at Dickenson Park. It has been rescheduled for 7 p.m. today.

With each team already having lost once in the double-elimination tournament, tonight’s game will determine the champion and state qualifier.

Meantime, in a game which had been slated for 7 p.m. today at Dickenson, Clovis American opted to forfeit the 9-10 tourney finale to Roosevelt County.

Roosevelt County had completed an unbeaten run though the tournament on Monday night with an 11-1 rout of American at Beachum Field, but had to forfeit when American protested the fact that Roosevelt’s three subs had not batted in a game shortened to 3 1/2 innings by the 10-run rule.

That necessitated a second championship game, but that changed after Sherry Best, president of the American League, visited with American manager Thom Moore on Tuesday morning.

“Our coaches really hated to take it away from the Roosevelt County kids (on a technicality),” Best said. “The coaches thought (the forfeit) was the right thing to do, and I’m really proud of them for that.”