By Ray Hamill — Never say never.

With their backs to the wall and their title hopes hanging by a thread, the Ferndale Wildcats rallied from a four-run deficit in the bottom of the seventh inning to win a game they absolutely had to have on Tuesday.

St. Bernard’s traveled to Ferndale with a perfect 6-0 conference record, including two wins over the Cats three weeks ago, and they appeared to have one hand already on the pennant as we headed to the bottom of the seventh.

But the Wildcats are defending conference champs for a reason and their experienced upperclassmen would carry them to their biggest win of the season.

The home team scored five runs in the bottom of the seventh to pull out a thrilling 9-8 victory, with all of the late runs coming on a two-out rally.

After Jonah Anderson hit a clutch two-run bloop single over the St. Bernard’s third baseman and Jarrett Smith was walked to load the bases, junior Prescott Langer was hit by a pitch on the very next pitch to drive in teammate Parker Prior for the winning run.

“Our upperclassmen were not going to go down without a fight,” Ferndale head coach Justin Andersen said. “We did just enough to keep us alive moving forward.”

The win keeps the Cats in contention for a second straight Little 4 title and sets up another mouthwatering showdown between these two great rivals at St. Bernard’s on Thursday.

A second win for the Ferndale boys (5-2 in the Little 4) would see them draw level with the Crusaders (6-1) at the top of the standings, whereas a win for the latter would see them move two wins clear again and all but secure this year’s title.

Both teams will have four games remaining after that — two each against Hoopa and South Fork — but the way each is playing this spring, they will both be expected to win all four of those.

“The good news is we have a one-game lead still in league and we get to play again on Thursday,” St. Bernard’s head coach Matt Tomlin said. “We have to learn from today’s game, continue to get better and come out ready to battle on Thursday.

“How we respond from this game will tell me what kind of team we have.”

Check out video highlights of the exciting conclusion to the game above …

Neither team was at its best in a somewhat sloppy game on Tuesday, with a plethora of mistakes on each side.

But it was certainly exciting all the way to the end and lived up to what we expect from this epic rivalry.

“Overall, it wasn’t pretty,” Andersen said. “It wasn’t the game I hoped for, but I was proud of the kids’ perseverance.”

Tomlin echoed the sentiment.

“We hit the ball extremely well today and scored runs,” he said. “We just struggled giving up the free passes as we walked 10 batters and hit two additional batters, giving up 12 free baserunners.

“In the end that was too much to overcome.”

The Crusaders started fast and put up three runs in the top of the first inning, but their hosts would respond immediately and they cut the deficit to one with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning.

The Crusaders added three more runs in the fourth to go up 6-2, before the two schools traded a couple of runs in the bottom of the fifth and top of the sixth to leave the visitors still up by four heading into the bottom of the seventh.

Langer led off the final inning with a double, before a pair of strikeouts by SB pitcher Luke Brunton either side of a Cade Renner walk put the visitors on the verge.

Tristen Titus and Tanner Pidgeon would keep their team in the game with RBI singles that cut the deficit to just two, before Anderson’s big hit tied things up.

And with the momentum clearly now in their favor, the Wildcats completed the remarkable comeback on the very first pitch of Langer’s second at-bat of the inning after Tyler Hinrichs took over on the hill from Brunton for the final two batters.

“It was a total team effort,” Andersen said. “It took us all to get it done.”

It also took a lot of perseverance and belief, at a time when pretty much everybody in the large crowd in attendance believed the game was all but done.

“Everybody but our dugout,” Andersen said.

Prior got the win in relief, throwing the final three innings and allowing just two hits.

Langer got the start and looked solid through the opening 2.2 innings, before Smith took over.

“I was pleased with the way all three of them threw,” said Andersen, who will have all three of them available again later in the week after keeping their pitch count down.

Michael Manzi got the start for the visitors and threw 4.2 solid innings.

The junior gave up just two hits and struck out five but walked eight.

Brunton threw two innings in relief and will be available on Thursday.

The junior gave up six hits and a walk and hit a batter, while striking out three.

Four SB players had multiple hits, including Manzi, who was 2-for-3 and drove in a pair of runs, as well as Tyler Maples, who was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.

Mason Noel was 2-for-4 with a double and Adam Wagner was 2-for-3 with two RBIs.

For Ferndale, Langer was 2-for-3 with a double, while Titus was 2-for-4 with two RBIs in the nine spot.

Pidgeon was 2-for-5 with two runs and an RBI, with freshmen Renner and Cash Mobley each also had a hit, with the latter also driving in the first of his team’s two runs in the fifth.

The loss was the second straight for the Crusaders, who saw an 11-game winning streak end with a 5-4 loss at St. Vincent de Paul on Monday.

St. Bernard’s is now 13-5 on the season, while the Wildcats, who have won six straight since losing twice to the Crusaders in the opening week of conference play, are now 11-2.

Thursday’s game at St. Bernard’s is set for 4 p.m.