LAPLACE — St. Charles Catholic American Legion baseball got off to a good start in regional play in a win over Mandville-based LLOG Exploration on Wednesday.

In at least four appearances in the regional tournament, the SCC-based Townsend Homes Post 383 has failed to move on to the state tournament.

They are hoping that changes this year.

While the team had a great regular season, posting a 10-4-1 record, they had a rocky district tournament where they were one win away from elimination before putting a 16-3 whipping on Lutcher.

Townsend Homes bounced back big in the southeast regional tournament opener on Wednesday with a late 4-1 victory over Mandeville.

Much of the contest was a pitcher’s battle, with Brennan Gilberti pitching eight innings for Townsend and racking up 10 strikeouts and only giving up one run.

“Our winning pitcher, Gilberti, threw really well,” SCC head coach Wayne Stein said. “He had eight really good innings and gave up one run.”

On offense the team faced a couple of tough pitchers to start the night off.

“They started a guy and he threw well and when his pitch count went up they went on to another guy and he kept us off balance. It wasn’t one guy the whole time so we had to make adjustments,” Stein said. “The first guy was more of a power pitcher and the second guy was more of a control guy. So it took us some time to get together.”

Still, Townsend was able to get the night started quick offensively with a run in the first inning with Justin Ory knocking in Brandon Lemoine, who earlier stole a base, off a double.

Mandeville came back in the fourth to tie the game up 1-1, which held until a big seventh inning in which SCC notched three runs off of three hits, including a single by Zack Weber that sent in two RBIs and turned into a triple off a throwing error by Mandeville.

Stein said he was proud of how his team hung on to take over late in the game.

“It was a tied game,” he said. “We scored one in the first and we didn’t score again until the seventh. And then we scored three in the seventh and kind of settled in and were able to keep them at bay. We played really good defense and we got some timely hits.”

Leading up to the seventh inning Stein said his team was put in scoring position several times with Lemoine and Lloyd Nash stealing two bases each along with Justin Loupe who stole one, but were mostly unable to capitalize on their on-base advantage.

“We ran a good bit and tried to put pressure on them,” he said. “We had opportunities to score in multiple innings, but we just couldn’t get that big two out hit until Zack Weber got it for us.”

In addition, Stein said Townsend struggled early on due to unfamiliar conditions.

“It took us some time to get together and then we don’t play at night much. The twilight, right before it gets dark, really took some time for our kids to adjust,” he said.

With the win over Mandeville, Townsend will have to keep on going for at least a few more games to stand a chance of making it to state. However, in the double elimination tournament SCC only has to lose two games to get knocked out. Already the field has been dropped from eight to six games after Fischer and Hammond were eliminated after two losses, with Townsend still holding tight.

As of press time, SCC was set to take on Brother Martin-based Peake BMW at 2:30 p.m. on Friday.

“They are a tough team,” Stein said. “We’ve played them every year. Played them in the season and lost 2-1 to one. It can go either way. It just depends on who plays well.”

Townsend was originally scheduled to play Peake BMW Thursday evening, but rain and lightning at Delgado’s Kirch-Rooney Stadium resulted in the game being rescheduled.

No matter the outcome of the game with Peake BMW (Brother Martin), SCC will get at least one more chance to stay in contention today.

If Townsend wins on Friday, they will take on the winner of the Otto Candies versus Rummel-based Deannie’s Seafood at 2 p.m. on Saturday. If they lose on Friday, Townsend will take on Holy Cross-based Ponstein’s Saturday at 11 a.m..

The southeast regional tournament is currently set to wrap up with the championship game on Monday.