Members of the Gorham Little League 12U all-star team took a loss on Tuesday that they never saw coming.

The champions from Maine’s competitive Little League District 6 were a half hour from playing a state tournament elimination game against District 4 champ York in Machias when they learned that Little League International had disqualified them from the double-elimination tournament.

Gorham catcher Chris Shaw, 12, the son of Gorham all-star coach Joel Shaw, had just stepped into the batting cage to take some practice swings. He’d heard his dad get called to the field’s press box.

“I kind of knew something was up when he came back with all the other coaches and parents,” said Chris Shaw, an incoming seventh-grader at Gorham Middle School. “Everyone was upset. There were a lot of people who just went off crying. I was really annoyed.”

Working from a complaint filed during the state tournament, which began Saturday, Little League International determined that the five teams in Gorham LL’s majors division (roughly ages 11 and 12) did not play the required 12 regular-season games.

Gorham, which had about a four-hour ride to Machias, has two town-owned fields that do not have lights. With rain falling on over half of the playable days this spring, Gorham’s teams played either nine or 10 games. League President Greg Norton said he believed the league’s own playoff games, which got most teams to the 12-game mark, could be counted to fulfill the requirement.

After the regular season, which ran from late April to the first few days of June, the all-star team began practicing and started play in the 13-team District 6 tournament on June 21. The issue of regular-season games did not arise during the District 6 tournament.

“I take no shortage of the blame,” Norton said in an at-times emotional interview. “There’s two things that could have been done. We could have filed the waiver earlier but we (thought) we had played enough games. Our teams played 12 and our (all-star) kids had all played eight games, which are the rules.

“There was no intent to defraud anybody. How is playing less games an advantage,” Norton continued, noting that the second thing that could have happened was for Little League, “to grant some grace.”

Gorham had gone 2-1 in its first three games, beating York 10-0, losing 3-2 to host Machias, and then eliminating Old Town 16-4 in a losers’ bracket game on Monday.

Gorham was confident it could beat York a second time and eventually advance to the finals, where it would have needed to beat Machias twice.

“We were feeling really, really good,” said Liam Norton, 12, Greg’s son and the team’s top pitcher, who was slated to throw on Tuesday. “Historically our district and (District 4) usually wins the state tournament. We had lost a game earlier in the tournament but we were feeling really confident that we could beat that team and get into the regionals.”

The Maine state winner advances to the New England Regional in Bristol, Connecticut, with games televised on ESPN stations. The regional winner advances to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. District 6 champ Gray-New Gloucester won the state and regional titles to advance to Williamsport in 2023. Last year, District 6 champ Portland lost in the New England final.

Liam Norton said he and his teammates were beginning to think about making it to the regionals and maybe even Williamsport during their down time, while playing bucket golf in the backyard of their Jonesport rental house or fishing for mackerel off the Jonesport wharf.

“During all-star season it’s every night you think about that; what could happen,” Liam Norton said. “Now I’m just upset that I don’t get another shot at it. My Little League career is over.”

Initially, the Gorham contingent put the blame for making the complaint on Machias. The host team arguably had the most to gain from not having to face Gorham a second time, especially if Norton, a 5-foot-5 right-hander who can throw his fastball over 70 mph was pitching. Norton did not pitch in the 3-2 loss.

“I don’t think for a minute this was a rule that we need to raise because it was somehow a competitive advantage,” for Gorham, said Joel Shaw. “We weren’t using illegal bats, or having 14-year-olds play, not any of those things. So why raise it and do this to these kids? What could possibly be the motivation other than to help another team?”

Chad Fitzsimmons, the state tournament director, said the initial complaint that Gorham had not met the games-played requirement came from District 2 champion Medomak Valley, which was eliminated when it lost its first two games and did not play Gorham. After other leagues and coaches had raised concerns about the issue, Fitzsimmons said he felt compelled to contact the Little League East Region headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut.

Fitzsimmons said he made Gorham’s coaches aware of the complaint on Monday evening.

Gorham filed a last-ditch waiver appeal at noon  Tuesday when Norton was alerted that the complaint had gone to Little League’s East Region. Gorham’s waiver request emphasized that it did schedule the required 12 regular-season games; that the unusually wet spring created numerous rainouts, “There was measurable precipitation 52% of the days,” Norton said; and, with only two fields without lights, they could not complete the full schedule. They also noted that all of the all-star players had met the individual player minimum of eight games played.

The game requirements are designed to keep a town from entering an all-star team without having a legitimate league, and to make sure the all-star players are active participants in Little League, Joel Shaw said.

Little League International notified Fitzsimmons that it was disqualifying Gorham around 4 p.m. on Tuesday. Fitzsimmons then informed the Gorham coaches, he said.

On Wednesday, Little League International issued a statement regarding Gorham’s disqualification.

“Upon the review of a protest filed against the Gorham (Maine) Little League program in the Little League Baseball division, the Little League International Tournament Committee, after reviewing with local league officials, determined that the league’s regular-season teams have not met the regular-season participation requirements necessary to participate in the International Tournament. Based on this information, the Little League International Tournament Committee has determined that Gorham Little League shall be removed from the Little League Baseball Maine State Tournament and the team’s last played game shall be declared a forfeit. The decision of the Tournament Committee is final and binding.”

Follow-up questions to Kevin Fountain, Little League International’s senior director of communications, asking if waivers have ever been granted in past tournaments, if there is a deadline for waiver requests, and specifically why Gorham’s waiver was denied were not answered.

For Chris Shaw and Liam Norton, two of the six 12-year-olds on the 12-player team, the abrupt ending left a sour taste on an otherwise joyful season that saw Gorham win the District 6 title for the first time.

“We didn’t do anything wrong,” Liam Norton said of himself and his teammates. “It was a mistake made by adults and we ended up being the ones who got punished for it.”

Chris Shaw summed up the situation and season neatly.

“I feel like if you don’t get to play games because of weather, you shouldn’t get kicked out of a tournament that every kid dreams about being able to play in,” he  said. “I’m going to remember it as a year we were doing great but (another) coach was scared of us and he got us knocked out because of a technicality.”