Not even a change of dugouts could change St. Aloysius’ late-inning luck.

French Camp struck for seven runs in the top of the seventh inning to break a 4-all tie, and went on to post an 11-4 win in Game 1 of a first-round Class 1A playoff series Friday at Bazinsky Field.

The Panthers (9-4) can close out the series today at French Camp with Game 2 at 1 p.m. If St. Al (2-18) can extend the series to a third game, it will follow immediately afterward.

French Camp will have plenty of momentum as it rocked Flashes’ ace Judson Gatling in the fateful seventh inning. Justin Anderson led off with a triple to dead-center that lit the fuse.

“He (Gatling) was getting tired and was just throwing fastballs,” Anderson said. “We showed we can hit. If we can keep the bats going, we can win this.”

Anderson added that Friday’s trip to Vicksburg was a lot different than the Panthers’ last visit in 2009, when they were barely a speed bump on St. Al’s road to the first of two consecutive Class 1A championships.

“We came here two years ago, and they were really good,” Anderson said.

St. Al tried to channel the spirit of those teams by moving back into its traditional spot in the first base dugout. For most of the season, it stayed on the third base side for games at Bazinsky Field. The switch did little to change the Flashes’ luck, though.

Lead runners were cut down three times between second and third base and two others were thrown out trying to steal second.

“We made so many baserunning mistakes,” interim St. Al coach Jim Taylor said. “Actually, about six bad ones. Three times between second and on a fourth time, we let a batted ball hit us. We also didn’t execute a pair of steals and got thrown out.”

Still, the Flashes got the tying run home in the bottom of the sixth to knot the game at 4. Andrew Collins led off with a single, went to second on a wild pitch and then to third on an error. Collins scored when an easy line drive was dropped at second.

French Camp quickly made up for the mistakes following Anderson’s leadoff triple. Hagan Box got his fourth hit of the game with a single to left to make it 5-4. Grady Henderson singled to put runners on second and third. After a strikeout, three straight batters singled just over or past St. Al infielders. Four more runs came in and it was suddenly 9-4. The lead grew to 11-4 before Taylor finally pulled Gatling following Anderson’s second at-bat of the inning.

“We weren’t communicating out there,” Taylor said. “We were throwing the ball too much and just gave them runs. Once they got up five or so runs, it was out of reach for us.”

St. Al played well early. Carlisle Koestler had a two-run single in the second inning to make it 3-0 in favor of the Flashes.

French Camp made it 3-2 with a two-run homer to left by Brad Palmertree. Box tied the game at 3 with his third hit that scored Anderson. He later scored for a 4-3 lead off a sacrifice fly by Palmertree.

French Camp finished with 15 hits off Gatling, who went 6 2/3 innings. He struck out seven and walked none.

Box was 4-for-5 while Anderson was 3-for-5. Ben Hoslet and Braden McGlothin had two hits and Palmertree drove in three runs.

Cole Henson went all seven innings to grab the win for the Panthers. He scattered nine hits.

Koestler, Matt Foley, Neal Ricks and Collins all had two hits for St. Al.