pitcher goes to his mouth without wiping it off

[coachnatte]

We just played a high school district tournament game and I have a question. We were in the seventh inning trailing the home team 8-6. We had 2 outs and runners in first and third. The HPU had in an earlier inning warned the opposing team's pitcher that he could not go to his mouth on the mound-( he was within 5 ft of the rubber)without wiping his hand off before he pitched. With our runners on base in this situation the HPU again gave him a warning that since he did it again he should cease from this once again. I was coaching at third base and said to the HPU that this was a balk. He told me it was not a balk. We have a no protest rule in Michigan during tournament play as "all disputes must be settled on the field". Should I have gone to the rule book in this situation? I thought this was an automatic balk- no brainer.My guy at the plate struck out and of course we lost.Should'nt have been 8-7 with a man on second before my guy struck out?