Looks like the Feds did better this time.
I re-read the battle report from the first time you ran this scenario, and I "think" what happened that first time was you missed the scenario rule that says much of the Klingon fleet was inactive at the start of the scenario. There's no other way they could have pinned the Federation force back to the far side of the planet so early, unless the Fed players were totally timid and held back waiting for reinforcements.
I could have written the scenario with all ships on-map at the start of the scenario, but I intentionally wanted the slow build-up. I figured with too many ships at the start, all the heavies would go POOF! under mass fire, and then the Feds would have no chance to reach the BATS. I knew it would be a tough fight this way.