CAPE ELIZABETH — Forget Warriors. Call them the Cardiac Kids.

For the second time in two weeks, Wells avoided a near-certain baseball defeat with an improbable last-ditch rally. The Warriors parlayed an error, hit batters, infield hits and a balk to overcome a four-run deficit and beat Cape Elizabeth 8-6 on Friday at Holman Field.

At 7-1, Wells remains the only one-loss team in Class B South. Cape Elizabeth fell to 7-2.

Adding to the bizarre finish, a two-out RBI single from Val Murphy in the bottom of the seventh that appeared to make it 8-7 was wiped out by a ruling that Cape Elizabeth had batted out of order.

While true – Sean Agrodnia was both the last batter in the home sixth and first of the home seventh – the Wells appeal came three batters after Agrodnia lined out. According to National Federation rules, the batter who followed Agrodnia, Carson Sullivan, became legal as soon as the first pitch was thrown to him. Sullivan reached on an error and came around to score on Murphy’s single.

But instead of Cooper Hoffman batting as the potential winning run, plate umpire Ray Petit agreed with Wells Coach Todd Day that Murphy was out of order and declared the game over. MPA rules prohibit protests so the ruling stands.

“We’ll put it behind us,” said Agrodnia, who pitched a three-hitter with five strikeouts before handing off a 6-2 lead. “When you’re up four runs with an out in the seventh and nobody on, to give up six runs in a row, that’s tough. But we have a good enough pitching staff and a good enough lineup that it really isn’t going to faze us too much.”

Agrodnia said his confusion stemmed from the long half-inning, which included four pitching and three catching changes.

Liam Bell lit the spark by reaching on an error. Cam Cousins singled to left and Michael Wrigley beat out a high chopper to load the bases.

A hit batter forced in a run and led to another pitching change. A second hit batter made it 6-4 and prompted Cape Elizabeth Coach Andrew Wood to summon catcher Brendan Tinsman for his first pitching appearance of the season.

The hard-throwing Tinsman struck out one batter, leaving Wells down to its final out.

Eleven days earlier, Wells had been in a similar predicament against Freeport, but facing a 4-0 deficit, and came back to win, 5-4.

“Part of it is luck,” said Wells center fielder Tyler Carpenter, “but part of it is also, you’ve got to take everything one at-bat at a time and do your job, and you’ve got to put the ball in play.”

Carpenter worked a full count, then managed a foul tip that both avoided a game-ending whiff and created a delay because the ball struck catcher Jameson Bakke, who had to leave the game. Bakke had two hits.

After a delay, Tinsman’s next pitch was just off the plate for ball four, and continued to the backstop for a passed ball that allowed a second runner to score and make it 6-6.

Shortstop Finn Bowe relieved and got two strikes on Covey Dufort when Carpenter made a break off second base. Bowe whirled but was called for a balk to make it 7-6. Dufort then beat out a dribbler as Carpenter scored.

“If this had happened in a playoff game, it would be devastating,” said Bowe, who had a 4-for-4 day at the plate and scored three runs. “But right now, we’ll put it behind us and just get ready for the games coming up.”

Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or

Gjordan@pressherald.com

Twitter: GlennJordanPPH

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