Recent Game: Got my Butt Kicked!! (Newb)

So a few days ago I played online.  It was 3v3.  I know I have to play MP to get better so I did.  I chose (and was the only one) to play the Advent Loyalists.  I know: they are the weakest.  So I started to expand and sent out SEVERAL scouts.  But I left a hole open just to the right of my HW.  BIG mistake!  I went left!!!   A player named 3Legs (the enemy) found that world ("hole") early on and went to colonize it.  I panicked.  I sent my whole fleet in to take him and his fleet which contained a Marza (I think).  He sprouted a frig factory right on the spot and started making corvettes.  They were more lethal than I knew.  My capital ship fell as I failed to take it out in time.  That is pretty much the end since he was one jump away from ending my existence.  I tried to fight it all out at my HW to no avail.  He played well.  My mistake was that I SHOULD have reverted to my home planet I think and prepared to go defensive against his onslaught with a repair bay.  I DID manage to get illuminators up and running.  That SHOULD have helped, but it didn't much.  Then it occurred to me, but too late, that if I was going to die I should take the bulk of my forces and go to his HW!!!  Why?  For my teammates of course!  To wreak havoc.  As long as he had to deal with me I could hamper his offensive tactics against my allies.  But unfortunately I made that decision too late and the fleet I left with (the remnant if you will) was too small to bother him (but lesson learned).

I apologize to my teammates for that loss.  It was bitter.  My allies played well, but I failed them.  I will be much more careful next time.  BUT, if I am gonna loose, I WILL NOT leave if I have ships left to fight.  Can you imagine if you were 3Legs, and 5 jumps away someone is destroying your research labs such that you have to micro that planet??  What a pain that would be.  Had I had my cap ship and several frigs I could have held out indefinitely running every chance I got . . .even to an allies outpost if I had to.  That was fun.  I need more experience.

KA