The bizarre saga of the American Legion Zone III championship took another strange turn on Thursday.

The rule that resulted in Pastime Club of Lewiston being awarded its third consecutive zone championship on Wednesday was incorrectly interpreted, Zone III comissioner Todd Cifelli said.

A Windham pitcher ruled ineligible on Wednesday was actually eligible, and Windham should not have had to forfeit at the start of the 16th inning of an 11-11 game, Cifelli said.

But Pastime will remain the champion and Windham will remain runner-up because no formal protest was filed while the umpires were on the field Wednesday, Cifelli said.

Cifelli, the former Pastime coach who is in his first year as zone commissioner, apologized for the mistake.

“The coaches, players and parents for the Windham team, and for that matter Pastime, deserved better,” Cifelli said. “The result is final because no protest was lodged while everybody was there. The game becomes final regardless of whether the rule was interpreted correctly or enforced correctly.”

Artes said he considered the matter over and is ready to move on.

“It’s an unfortunate thing for the kids,”  Artes said. “It’s one of those things where we could point fingers all day long about whose fault it is and whose fault it isn’t, but at the end of the day, everybody makes mistakes and you just have to deal with the cards you’re dealt.”

As zone champion, Pastime gets an automatic berth in the state tournament, which begins Wednesday in Augusta. As runner-up, Windham will have to beat Zone 2 runner-up Madison on Saturday to advance to the double-elimination state tournament.

The controversial conclusion brought a sudden halt to a wild game which began on Monday. Windham rallied for three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to tie it at 11-11 and send it to extra innings. Upon completion of the 10th inning, play was suspended due to darkness and the game was scheduled to resume at that point on Tuesday.

Tuesday’s rain forced officials to postpone the game one day. When the teams returned to Windham High School on Wednesday, the coaches held a brief pregame meeting with the umpires and play resumed in the top of the 11th with Nate Boyle making his first mound appearance in the game for Windham.

Boyle started and pitched seven innings in Sunday’s win over Locke Mills and held Pastime scoreless through his first five innings on Wednesday. When he threw a first-pitch strike to Pastime’s Eddie Emerson to start the 16th inning, Jordan asked home plate umpire Kevin Joyce for a conference and alerted him that he believed Boyle had begun his 13th inning pitched in three days. Joyce called on Cifelli to join the discussion, and a short time later it was ruled Windham had forfeited the game under Rule 1(O) of the 2013 American Legion Rule Book.

The rule states:

Joyce said his interpretation of the rule on Wednesday was that the game would be treated as if it were still being played on Monday.

“The only thing I asked, and everyone agreed when I asked it earlier in the game, was is this considered as (if it were) being played Monday, because it’s a suspended game. And everybody said yes,” said Joyce, who is the interpreter for the Western Maine Baseball Umpires Association. 

“That’s what we were going on. Nobody had the Legion rule book,”  Joyce added. “I guess if you look at the national book, it says the rain day would have counted as an extra day and he could have pitched. But we didn’t have the book.”

Earlier in the game, Jordan, Joyce and Cifelli had a conference to clarify the status of Pastime relief pitcher Luke Cote. Jordan said he didn’t bring up Boyle’s eligibility until the conference after the first pitch of the 16th inning.