CONRAD — The power of family gave BCLUW softball the muscle to pick up a postseason win on Monday.

With head coach Megan Yantis out of town on Monday grieving the recent passing of her father, her two daughters, assistant coach Easton Swanson and senior catcher Callie Swanson, contributed to a 17-5 romp over Baxter to kick off the Class 1A Region 5 bracket at Dave Lee Field.

BCLUW (14-16) hammered out nine runs in the fourth inning to end the game early, and advance to face BGM in a regional quarterfinal on Wednesday.

Thoughts of empathy resonated through the BCLUW dugout on Monday — the Comets spoke with Yantis before and after the game via FaceTime and offered a pre-game team prayer for her and the family.

“We all said that we were going to win this one for her,” BCLUW starting pitcher Klayre Gallentine said.

The Swanson girls know the drill and helped keep everyone on task on Monday.

“I was comfortable just offering suggestions and advice to the girls, helping out tonight,” said Callie Swanson, one of three seniors on the Comet roster this summer. “It was really important for us to win this one tonight.”

Baxter, a winless squad but one that had already seen the Comets twice in Iowa Star play this year, were determined to give BCLUW a challenge.

A walk and several errors from the Comets allowed the Bolts to get ahead 3-1 after 1 1/2 innings.

“We just wanted to move on from those,” Gallentine said. “We really had to just take it one ball at a time and make the next play.”

BCLUW’s bats provided a much-needed boost in the second inning. The Comets scored six runs with two outs in the inning, including an RBI for Sarah Garber, two RBIs for Raegan Crawford and three scored on a ball in play from Gallentine.

Baxter rotated its pitchers consistently throughout the game, which always provided BCLUW batters with a different look but what was ultimately a code the Comets could crack.

“We waited for the ball to get to us and weren’t lunging as much,” Callie Swanson said. “We adjusted really well to each pitcher, were patient and got some good hits off them.”

Meanwhile, Gallentine was able to settle in after a rocky start and stand tall in some tricky situations; a 1-2-3 double play got the Comets out of a bases-loaded jam in the third and Gallentine finished with four strikeouts on the night.

“She started a little rough, and I think she would agree with me, but she really buckled down and got us out of that inning,” Callie Swanson said.

BCLUW put the finishing touches on in the fourth, turning up its trademark aggressive baserunning with some efficient bunting to tax Baxter’s defense.

Thirteen batters came to the plate in the fourth inning, with a two-RBI single from Klayre Gallentine and single RBI for Callie Swanson, Grace Farnsworth and Allison Ward as well as four runs scored on balls to the backstop.

Wednesday’s game with BGM begins at 7 p.m.

“We just have to keep the bats big,” Callie Swanson said, “and our defense needs to stay clean. We just need to keep the energy we had here tonight.”