BY DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

LAPLACE-Sitting in the stands watching, Comets Football Head Coach Frank Monica can only hope that his team this fall can put as many points on the scoreboard that the baseball team did on Thursday afternoon.

Dominating an undermanned and overmatched Belle Chasse squad, the Comets easily advanced into the second round Thursday of the 3A state playoffs with a 16-1 stomping of Belle Chasse.

The game was called after five innings due to the 10-run mercy rule.

Wasting no time to jump out on top, St. Charles Catholic put four runs on the board in the bottom of the first inning.

After Kyle Olasin reached on an error, Casey Robottom singled and Matt Sutton doubled, scoring Olasin.

Shortstop Matt Heltz picked up the big hit of the inning when he doubled into right-field, scoring Robottom and Sutton to push the Comets lead to 3-0.

After back-to-back strikeouts, designated hitter Jared Nowell came through in what would be several clutch situations. Nowell lined a two-out RBI single into right-field scoring Heltz to give the Comets a 4-0 lead.

After pushing across another three runs in the bottom of the second inning, St. Charles Catholic put the game away for good in the third, scoring nine runs on six hits after sending 13 batters to the plate.

Heltz, Rollo and Nowell each had hits in the big third inning and Jesse Martin and Chris Waguespack each picked up a pair of hits in the nine-run third.

While Martin was leading the Comets charge at the plate, he was masterful on the mound.

Perfect through four and a third innings, he did not allow a baserunners until the fourth inning and the only run scored came on a wild pitch.

For the game, he allowed only one run on one hit, striking out eight and walking only one.

“I never even imagined that we would get this kind of run support,” a happy St. Charles Catholic Head Coach Paul Waguespack said after the game. “We have seen Belle Chasse play and I thought that they were a pretty good ballclub.

“We played good baseball out there today. We have just got to keep it up. Hopefully we can continue to swing a hot bat.”

While the 16-1 score can be deceiving, Waguespack said he was particular happy with his team’s ability to score so many runs with two outs; something that they will need to continue to do if they are to be successful later in the playoffs.

“We have been doing that the whole season,” Waguespack said. “We have gotten a lot of runs with two outs.

“It is definitely something that you have to hang your hat on. Overall we played good defense, Jesse through the ball well. He only gave up one hit. When you throw strikes and make the plays, good things happen.”

Pounding out double-digit hits, Waguespack said he hopes that the hot-hitting bats of St. Charles Catholic remain throughout the rest of the playoff run.

“Everybody in our starting lineup got a hit tonight,” Waguespack said. “That is twice that we have done that. Accomplishing that feat twice in the last three games is quite impressive. You have got to be happy with that.

“It doesn’t get any easier from this point on. The competition gets a lot harder as we continue on.”