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Excelsior American Legion Baseball

Gopher Classic Tournament Rules

Gopher Classic Tournament Rules

Tourney Rules

The Gopher Classic Tournament will consist of 96 teams this year.  There are 16 sites that will make up a pool.  Pool standings can be found on the standings page and the winner of each pool will advance to the final round of 16 teams.  Pool play will conclude on Sunday with the first round of 16 games playing out at four different sites on Monday. The round of 16 sites will be Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Edina and Minnetonka High School (Excelsior).  In the event a team can not play in the round of 16 due to the start of Legion play-offs or some other reason, the pool runner-up team will advance to Monday.  

  • The tournament follows the American Legion Pitch Count Rules
    • While it is on the honor code - you CAN NOT PITCH MORE THAN 105 IN A GAME (you may finish a batter if you hit 105 during an at bat).

  • American Legion Rules (Major League - American League Rules) - Except noted below

  • College Slide

  • P/DH is allowed 

    1. You can start with a straight 9 then when your pitcher comes out of the games he can become the DH but this needs to be on the lineup Card as P/DH

  • Re-Entry For Starters

  • Courtesy runners for Pitcher and catcher 

    1. (anyone not in the game at the time - can be the same runner)

  • 8 run rule after 5 innings

  • Old pro trips to the mound (1 per inning) 

Tie Breakers

1.  Head-to-Head:  Note- in the event of a three-or four-way tie, winner must win all games with teams they are tied with to be a pool winner. 

2.  Least runs allowed per inning played (lowest number):   Determined by all runs given up in all five (5) games played divided by the innings played.  Pool winner is the lowest number.  

3.  Most runs scored:  Determined by the nunber of runs scored in all five (5) games played divided by the innings played.  The pool winner is the highest number. 

4.  Coin flip:  If we have 2 teams still tied after Rule #2, then we will go to Rule #3.  We will not go head-to-head at this point.  

5.  Rainouts-can and do happen.  This is just nature taking its course and the games are difficult to make up and are a part of baseball and can impact the tie-breakers.