Solar tosses 2-hitter, CCHS run-rules Logansport, 10-0

Central Catholic senior Charlie Solar got the start for the Eagles in their first-round Class 1A playoff game against No. 32 Logansport Tuesday, and the senior made the most of his appearance.
Solar pitched a complete-game two-hitter with four strikeouts and one walk on just 55 pitches, while the Eagles offense produced 10 runs for a 10-0 run-rule victory in five innings.
“It was good to set the tempo,” Solar said. “We started off really slow, but it felt good just to set the tempo the first round of the playoffs.”
Solar surrendered a hit in the second inning on a bloop single by Tyler Cox that fell in shallow centerfield between three Eagles and another in the top of the fifth on a single to centerfield by Austin Edgar.
The Central Catholic senior was efficient, pitching to just three over the minimum.
Logansport (10-17) had just two base runners, and after the second one advanced to third base with two outs in the top of the fifth, Solar responded with a strikeout of Josh Darden to end the inning.
“Charlie definitely earned this start,” CCHS coach Tyler Jensen said. “Charlie was our best option for this game what we felt like going forward. Charlie throws a lot of strikes. Charlie’s good on the mound, and I think Charlie gets overlooked a lot of times by some of the other guys we have, but we had a lot of confidence in him going in and he had a lot of confidence in himself.”
Top-ranked Central Catholic (24-4) will advance to the second round of the Class 1A postseason, and it will host No. 16 Grand Lake Saturday at 3 p.m. Grand Lake advanced to the second round after defeating No. 17 LaSalle, 8-4.
In Tuesday’s game, Central Catholic’s offense scored five runs in the bottom of the second inning, all with two outs.
However, it looked for a minute as if Logansport could escape a bases-loaded jam unscathed. After loading the bases with one out, Central Catholic’s Adam Dupuis hit a ball to Logansport third baseman Brandon Tyler, who then threw home to get the lead runner for the second out.
However, with the bases still loaded, Patrick Barron, who had earlier singled, scored from third base on a passed ball by Dayton West.
Drake Angeron soon followed with a two-run single off the glove of Logansport’s shortstop for a 3-0 Central Catholic lead.
The Eagles added two more runs — one on a double steal where Angeron took second and Stefano Guarisco, who had walked earlier in the inning, stole home, and later on a run-scoring single by Samuel Guarisco.
“I think early on the year I would have been a little concerned with two outs, because we were really struggling to get two-out hits, but here down the stretch, we’ve gotten a lot of two-out hits,” Jensen said. “A lot of guys stepping up in big spots and squaring some balls up. You always want to score runs, but as long as a guy hits a ball hard, and even if we don’t score runs, I’m okay, because that guy gave his best run at it for us to score some runs.”
Central Catholic added two more runs in the bottom of the fourth via a Thomas Garber double to the right field wall.
The game was called due to the 10-run mercy rule in the fifth inning via a sacrifice fly by Stefano Guarisco to centerfield, Garber was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Mitchell Lemoine’s sacrifice fly to centerfield.
Samuel Guarisco led Central Catholic with a 3-for-4 performance with an RBI and a run. Other top offensive contributors included Angeron, 2-for-3, two RBIs, three runs and a stolen base; Solar, 1-for-2, a triple; Garber, 1-for-3, a double and three RBIs; Stefano Guarisco, an RBI and a run; and Lemoine, an RBI.
Cox and Edgar each finished 1-for-2 for Logansport.
West suffered the loss for Logansport. In two innings, he allowed five earned runs on three hits with three walks and fanned one.