The Eau Claire American Legion Post 53 19U team knew their opposition well before Tuesday night at Casper Park.

In three previous games this summer, Eau Claire had bested Marshfield American Legion Post 54 at each occasion, the last coming by way of an Ian Bauer River City Classic walk-off.

But, Post 53’s familiarity and luck facing Marshfield ran out in a 10-6 loss in their Class AAA Regional opening game.

“It’s just been a battle with them all year,” Post 53 coach Doug Flater said. “We had the first three games and it makes that fourth one that much tougher to get.”

Eau Claire (19-2) moved on to face rivals Chippewa Falls Post 77 on Wednesday, with the loser ending their season. Chippewa Falls fell 5-1 to Wausau Post 10 Tuesday.

Post 53 took its first and only lead in the second inning courtesy of a Nolan Sweeney RBI single.

From there, Marshfield singled their way past Eau Claire pitching, tallying 15 on the night.

“They’re so good at putting the ball in play,” Flater said. “Even when our pitchers were getting ahead of them, they were getting the bat on the ball, and anything can happen.”

Eau Claire starter Logan Zinsmaster struggled in just 2.2 innings, giving up seven runs, seven hits, three walks and three hit-by-pitches.

“It was just one of them days,” Flater said. “He just didn’t have it. All year, he’s been so sharp. That’s so unlike him. He’ll bounce back.”

Post 53 reliever Landon Knecht struggled too, giving three runs and eight hits.

Very quickly, Eau Claire found itself in a 7-1 hole that later became a 10-3 deficit.

A three-run top of the sixth, highlighted by a Brady Johnson two-RBI double, gave the Post 53 offense life.

“I was seeing a lot of off-speed, so I was just trying to have a simple opposite-way approach, and it worked out in my favor,” Johnson said.

A scoreless Marshfield sixth inning courtesy of Post 53 pitcher Karsten Trowbridge kept Eau Claire in touching distance.

Four batters later, however, Eau Claire found itself one loss from going home.

“We know we have the hitters that come back in a game like that, and we weren’t out of it till the last out,” Flater said. “Karsten Trowbridge did a great job of kind of shutting the faucet off and keeping us in the game.

“(We) just ran a little short.”

Eau Claire tallied nine hits Tuesday, with Johnson’s double being the lone extra-base hit of the combined 24-hit contest.

“I didn’t hate how we played,” Johnson said. “They played a good game, hit the ball where we weren’t, and we couldn’t do enough with our bats to answer back.”

Flater said he’d love to face Marshfield once more at regionals, then again at the state tournament in Marshfield next week.

But first, Eau Claire has to focus on getting out of regionals starting Wednesday.

“This team will bounce back. We’ll be ready tomorrow,” Flater said.

“Tons of confidence tomorrow. We expect to win two games,” Johnson said.