Chatsworth Is Thrown for Another Loss : High school softball: City officials deny protest even though they concede the Chancellors were wronged in playoff defeat to Carson.

Chatsworth High Principal Donna Smith spent Thursday afternoon banging her head against a brick wall. All she got was a headache.

Chatsworth was told by administrators in the Los Angeles Unified School District that a softball appeal filed by the school had been denied, even though all parties agreed that Chatsworth was in the right.

“It’s hard to lose on a technicality,” Smith said. “But when you’re not wrong to begin with, it’s doubly hard.”

The controversy stemmed from Tuesday’s City Section 4-A Division playoff opener against Carson. Chatsworth Coach Gary Shair inserted Katie Kosmala to pinch-hit with Carson holding a 6-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning. Kosmala singled, but her uniform number had been incorrectly listed on the lineup card and Carson coaches objected.

An umpire took away the base hit and ejected Kosmala, prompting Shair to play the game under protest. The Chancellors rallied for six runs in the sixth and sent the game into extra innings before falling, 8-7, in the 11th.

Chatsworth supporters contacted City Commissioner Hal Harkness on Wednesday and supplied him with background on the disqualification, yet the ruling was upheld. Chatsworth went a step further, and on Wednesday night contacted Frank Wilhelm, the state softball rules interpreter.

According to Smith, Wilhelm said that the player should not have been removed from the game because the rules state that a player must only be listed correctly by name, not by number, on a scorecard. Harkness, who Smith concedes was not completely briefed on the circumstances of the incident when first contacted Wednesday, was reached Thursday morning with the new information.

Harkness, noting that the next round of the playoffs was scheduled for Thursday afternoon, said replaying the game would interrupt the postseason structure. “I wasn’t going to turn the playoffs upside down for another game,” he said.

Smith contacted Dan Isaacs, an administrator in the senior high schools division and one of Harkness’ superiors, and complained. Isaacs, Harkness and another senior administrator, Dick Browning, then met to discuss the case and decided that the game would not be replayed, she said. At that point, Smith threw up her hands.

“Basically, they felt that with the score what it was (6-0) at the time, the ruling was made, that the play didn’t have much of an impact on the outcome,” Smith said. “I have to say that I disagree with them.”

Said Harkness: “If there had been a direct cause-and-effect correlation between what happened and who won, I might have done something differently.”

Smith volunteered several solutions to the dilemma. She said the team was willing to replay the game from the point of the disqualification, when Chatsworth trailed by six.

If the Chancellors (11-5) had won, they could have played a second-round game against Birmingham immediately thereafter--or whenever possible--Smith said.

“There were lots of possibilities,” she said. “We could have played a doubleheader (Thursday). We could have played it Friday, or even Saturday.

“The fact is that the ruling was improperly upheld.”