By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

One down, four to go for the St. Charles Lady Comets.

The top seed in Class 3A took care of business on Tuesday, hosting and defeating No. 32 seed Xavier Prep 15-0 in four innings by the 15-run rule in a bi-district playoff game.

St. Charles’ Ashley Trosclair (13-2) pitched a perfect game over four innings, allowing no baserunners and striking out eight batters.

St. Charles (26-6-1) advanced to the regional round with the win, where it was scheduled to face No. 16 seed Rayne yesterday. Rayne advanced with a 12-1 win over De La Salle in the first round.

St. Charles senior catcher Lauren Coniglio said that the Comets had no intentions of bringing anything but their best game, regardless of whether the opposition was the No. 2 or 32 seed in the state tourney.

“We feel like if we play our game, we can be unstoppable,” said Coniglio. “We approached today with the assumption that we were playing a great team, and that we couldn’t let down.”

After an inning of play, there was no doubt that indeed, the Comets meant business. Once Trosclair retired the side in order in the first inning, she didn’t have to wait long for offensive support.

After Courtney Western and Katie Tregre each reached base, Coniglio blasted an RBI double to give St. Charles a 2-0 lead.

Katie Reine hit a double of her own to make it 3-0. Brooke Becker reached on a single, and a throwing error by Xavier (8-4) allowed Reine to score, making it 4-0.

RBI’s by Megan Musacchia, Jessie Braud, and Tregre gave St. Charles a 7-0 lead after an inning. They never looked back.

Trosclair finished 3-for-3 with two RBis. Musacchia was 2-for-2 with two RBIs. Elizabeth Jackson was 1-for-1 with two RBIs, including a sacrifice fly in the fourth that brought home the win-clinching run.

Monica deemed the win the “first step on the road to Sulphur”, where this year’s Fast Pitch 56 tournament will take place. One more win clinches that trip.

But Monica put things in perspective, saying that while his team is playing well, there are things that could be cleaned up.

“We’ve definitely got to start swinging the bats better,” said Monica. “We’ve played pretty well defensively and pitched okay. But we have to start picking it up at the plate.”

Coniglio echoed those sentiments, noting that the team’s strong defensive and pitching efforts have kept them in a top position while looking for the bats to come around.

And while St. Charles carries the top seed with it on a potential trip to Sulphur, her words indicate that the team still carries an underdogs hunger with it.

“Honestly, there are a lot of people that don’t believe in us right now,” she said. “It just makes us want to work harder to prove them wrong. We feel like we can accomplish anything we set our minds to.”