What's the final score?

[John Robertson]

Here's what Softball Canada says. (You'll see why it's somewhat open to interpretation.)

Section 5-5: The winner of the game shall be the team that scores more runs in a regulation game.

Section 5-3: A regulation game shall consist of seven innings.

Section 5-3 (a): A full seven innings need not be played if the team second at bat scores more runs in six innings or before the third out in the last of the seventh inning.

In my opinion, one could take a hard-line interpretation of Rule 5-3 (a) and declare the game over the moment the winning run crosses the plate (assuming no appeals, of course). However, the phrase "need not" can be looked upon as very flexible. It is certainly not as rigid as "shall not." Thus you could argue that all the runs should score on a walkoff homer.

Whatever the case, this seems to be a very vague area in Canada. Everyone I know interprets the rule as it seems to be interpreted in the USA: All runs score on a walkoff homer while only the winning run scores on any other type of game-ending play.