By ROBERT L. LEE

DESTREHAN – In only two swings of the bat, Hannan-based Capella/All-state erased East St. Charles Post 366/195’s 3-0 lead and covered it with their own one-run lead at 4-3 Thursday. East St. Charles received the pounding on their home field until finishing a scoreless seventh inning down 9-5.

The loss marks the first game of a best-of-three second district playoff series with the Hawks. The two teams played again on Friday at Hannan, with the outcome determining the need for a third game back in Destrehan.

The Fighting Wildcats entered the legion playoffs with a third place finish, trailing the second place Otto Candies and leader, Shaw-based First Bank and Trust.

The Fighting Wildcats’ 3-run lead stood from the bottom of the opening inning, into the top of the third when the Hawks pulled their runner off third base with a deep left field single for the first run. Immediately following, with two runners on base and two outs, the Hawks took over the lead with a home run over the right field wall. The Hawks would continue building their eventually insurmountable lead by scoring five runs across the next three innings.

“We didn’t get things done,” stated East St. Charles coach Marty Luquet. “If you give a team of that quality the opportunity, they will win, and that’s what happened.”

Luquet linked the loss to three detrimental causes: lack of quality pitches in spots, lack of an adequate defense and not making timely hitting. The pitching allowed 13 hits, while the defense let the hits move past them like a mouse before a sleeping Wildcat.

Offensively, the Fighting Wildcats fought to hit in bunches, but were cut short before scoring, which left usually two runners on base in every inning for a total 11 runners stranded.

East St. Charles left two Capella/All-State runners stranded, then began taking their 3-0 first inning lead via a base hit from lead-off batter Tyrone Wethers, a Daniel Vitrano walk and a 2-run RBI to bring them sliding in by Trey Simon. With no outs, The Fighting Wildcats loaded the bases, then scored their third run on a Sean Bergeron sacrifice bunt.

Down 7-3 in the bottom of the fifth inning, they resumed scoring with a Tron Lee RBI single, followed by a Jacob Long RBI single to make the score 7-5. A within 10 feet of the center field wall allowed one Hawk to score, then another flew across home plate following a line drive over second base.

“We plan to play better Friday, we have to sweep them,” said Luquet.

“We’re looking for a challenge. We think we’re good, we’ll see just how good.”