[spoon]

For your ships, it sounds like the main problem was you could not hit. The one level difference in ECM vs. Combat Sensors is one factor, but your opponent (was this AI or human?) probably had either/or:

-Training - fleet and ship training facilities can give you an extra +40% to ship combat.

-Defensiveness (the racial characteristic) - this can give your opponent and additional +35% (+25% from the characteristic, +10 by taking Bezerker culture).

For your current game, research Training Facilties, combat sensors, and set your ships to Point Blank. You might want to switch over to PPBs yourself, to negate his shields. For future games, buy some more Aggressiveness (I usually go to 120%), or try playing with the Religious Talisman...

Your fighters weren't fast enough to close - try giving them max engines (and some shields to increase their hitpoints).

Happy hunting,
-Spoon