Little Leaguers Cry Foul Over Win : Baseball: Team from Foothill protests victory by Vaquero All-Stars in division championship game.

The plot thickens in the case of the litigious Little Leaguers.

The Vaquero All-Stars, who successfully sued after league officials barred them from the playoffs for playing in charity games, last night won the game deciding the Division 16 championship, defeating a team from Foothill, 6-5.

But did they win the Division 16 title? That all depends on the Byzantine rules that govern Little League, and who’s doing the talking.

“We are the champs!” said Rony Auseda, Vaquero’s manager. “We beat them.”

But Foothill says Vaquero didn’t beat them fair and square, and had lodged a protest before the game. Foothill contended that Vaquero was fielding ringers--to wit, the two sons of former Dodger pitching great Fernando Valenzuela.

The protest seems to have the support of Little League district administrator Mike Malone, but that doesn’t surprise Vaquero’s coach, Mark Puccinelli.

After all, Puccinelli said, it was Malone who tried to keep Vaquero from getting to the playoffs in the first place.

“Malone thinks he’s running his own little fiefdom,” Puccinelli complained. “He said he’d get even with us, and he did.”

Puccinelli said it is highly likely that when the sectional playoffs begin today, pitting the Division 16 champs against the Division 18 champs, three teams might try to take the field.

Vaquero will be there as the winners, but Puccinelli said he’s heard that the protesting Foothill team plans to show up too.

“We won the game so we are the rightful district champions,” Puccinelli said. “What happened to these kids is a travesty.”

Twenty players from the Vaquero league all-star team were ruled ineligible for the District 16 all-star tournament because they had played in a series of charity games benefiting the Tim Herman Foundation in early July. (The foundation is named for a 9-year-old La Crescenta boy who died of a heart condition last year.)

Little League officials said this violated Regulation IV of the league’s rules and regulations, which state that no more than six players from the same team may compete together on a nonleague team.

The Vaquero parents and players said they felt the rule was administered unfairly because the charity games were strictly for fun. They hired a lawyer, who obtained a court order last week allowing the team to enter the playoffs.