Three errors, a couple of hits and a mental lapse erased a 1-0 lead and Ferndale went on to hand the combined Oak Harbor/Coupeville Class AA American Legion baseball team its first league loss Tuesday night, dropping the Wildcats to 6-1.

Up against tough Ferndale pitcher Casey Locker, the Wildcats touched up the Falcons’ right-hander for a run in the bottom of the second inning on a lead off triple by Danny Lura and a one-out sacrifice by Patrick Higbee.

After that, Locker settled down and gave up just two hits for the remainder of the game while striking out 10 and walking two.

“It’s good for us to go up against a pitcher like they had,” coach Jim Waller said. “He is the first quality pitcher we’ve faced since we played at Everett and he is more

like what we see in high school varsity games. That’s one of the drawbacks to playing AA Legion, most of the pitchers we see were on junior varsity teams last season and they will probably remain JV pitchers.”

Ferndale sent 10 batters to the plate in the top of the fourth inning scoring four runs off losing pitcher Zach Hauser.

“I thought Zach threw pretty well,” Waller said. “In that one inning, he just got a little bit tired and they got a few hits. If we made good defensive plays behind him, we still might be playing the game. I don’t know if they would have scored in that inning if we had made the plays.”

Lura was the only Wildcat player with more than one hit.

“It was nice to see Danny hit the ball hard,” Waller said.