The Canberra Cavalry has graciously accepted the wooden spoon in the Australian Baseball League despite claims it may have been unfairly denied a playoff spot.
In a bizarre finish to the ABL season, Canberra, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane finished in a four-way tie for third spot with identical 20-25 win-loss records.
But with only two of the four teams able to progress to the post-season, the Cavalry was relegated to last spot by a confusing countback system.
Cavalry officials initially believed a separate tiebreaker would take place once third position was decided, which would allow them to progress.
However, they were informed by email on Sunday - just hours before the team's final regular season game against the Melbourne Aces- that the ABL had ruled that Canberra would need to beat the Aces to make the playoffs.
The Cavalry lost 10-7 to slump to the bottom of the table.
While disappointed with the late notice, Cavalry chief executive Peter Bishell said there would be no appeal against the decision.
''We were of the view that if you interpreted the rules one way you go through no matter what the result on the Sunday but we were aware there was an alternative view,'' Bishell said.
''[The ABL] made it clear we had to win to go through.
''There's a portion of the rules that says if the rules need to be interpreted they will be interpreted by the ABL.
''The umpire has spoken.''
Bishell didn't believe the ruling had a negative impact on the team's performance.
ABL operations manager Ben Foster denied there was any confusion and said that procedures for having four teams tied on identical records were clearly laid out.
''I'm confident that we've gone to the letter of the law in terms of the way we've applied the rules,'' he said.
''We essentially applied the exact rule as it's written to a three-team tie and substituted the word three for the word four.
''The rule we applied is pretty clear in the way it is written.''
This reporter is on Twitter: @lee_gaskin1
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