LAPLACE — For the first time since the St. Charles Catholic program began playing American Legion summer baseball, it will host the Second District baseball tournament.

SCC, playing under the banner of Townsend Homes, earned the top seed in the district after arguably posting its best Legion regular season to date, going 9-3-1 against a schedule supercharged with larger school foes.

Townsend Homes will host Hahnville-based Otto Candies at 4 p.m. Monday. Second-seeded John Curtis and third-seeded Lutcher will play at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Comet Field. The winners and losers of each game will play Wednesday, beginning at 12:30 p.m., and the tourney will extend to Thursday or beyond if necessary. The top two teams will advance to the Southeast Regional.

Townsend Homes has never advanced beyond the Southeast Regional — but, of course, the team has never been the top seed of its district tournament, either.

Perhaps uncharted territory could be in Townsend’s future?

“We’ve talked about it, the fact we’ve never made it (to the Legion state tournament) before,” said Townsend’s Brady Newman, who has swung one of the team’s hottest bats this summer. “(The team has talked) about being part of something big, something special … we’ve played really well all summer long. We’ve got seven seniors back and a team full of guys who are willing to do whatever’s necessary to win.”

Newman’s two-run double in the sixth inning of Wednesday’s game against Otto Candies eventually helped secure a 2-2 tie for the teams in the final regular season game for both. The game went eight innings, after which Townsend coach Wayne Stein and Otto Candies coach David Baudry agreed to call the game, with both teams having already clinched their respective tournament seedings.

“Before the summer, I told our guys I was only going to schedule 13 games,” Stein said. “I wasn’t going to add any more, but all I asked was for those 13 games, I’d have their focus. Almost to the letter, they’ve given me that. (Wednesday’s) game didn’t mean anything in the standings, but I asked them to not play like that was the case, and they gave me what I asked for.”

The game was the latest in a string of strong pitching performances by the Townsend Homes staff.

This time, Brennan Gilberti started the contest for Townsend, with Otto Candies countering with Trent Bergeron.

Townsend Homes and Otto Candies played one previous time this summer, with Townsend winning 3-2 in an early June contest.

Stein said advancing through the district tournament and beyond isn’t his chief concern, though he’d like to guide his team to those heights.

What he wants first and foremost, though, is to see his team play consistently well, win or lose, and punctuate what’s been an extremely promising summer with a quality finish.

“I don’t want to leave it with a nasty taste in my mouth,” he said.

“I just want to continue to play well and stay focused.”