Behind a two-hit complete game from sophomore pitcher Zach Clesas and a seven-run outburst in the fourth inning, the Johnston baseball team shut out Central 7-0 on Monday to improve to 7-2 on the season.

Clesas is now not only the Division I wins leader, but the statewide wins leader with four.

The right-hander, who lost his no-hit bid with two outs in the fifth inning against Central, has potentially been the biggest key to the Panthers’ success thus far this spring.

“Zach was lights out for us on the mound,” Johnston head coach Steve DeMeo said. “Today, at the halfway point of the season, he’d probably be our MVP. For a sophomore to have poise like that, it’s pretty incredible. You can’t teach that, that comes all from inside.”

Central put a runner on second in the top of the first, but Clesas would strand Rommy Morel there, getting Erry Baldayac to roll over to third to escape the inning.

As good as Clesas was, Central’s Kevin Alvarez was equally as impressive in the early innings.

It wasn’t until the bottom of the fourth that Johnston’s offense was able to get to Central’s senior right-hander and break open a scoreless game.

Clesas singled up the middle to get things started with one out, before Jake Podmaska drew a two-out walk and Frank Heredia reached safely on an error at third, loading the bases.

With Jake Coro up, the Panthers finally broke the stalemate when Alvarez spiked a breaking ball that found its way to the backstop, allowing Clesas to jog home from third to make it 1-0.

A couple of pitches later, Coro would rope an inside pitch to right field, one-hopping the fence for a double that plated Podmaska and Heredia, upping Johnston’s lead to 3-0.

And Johnston was far from done.

Joe Michael followed with a double of his own to score Coro, and Emilio Rodriguez would continue the hit parade when he singled home Michael.

Central’s second error of the inning supplied the Panthers with two more runs, with Nick Raposo and Rodriguez coming around to score on a mishandled throw to first.

When the fourth inning was all said and done, Johnston held a commanding 7-0 lead.

“We hung tough, their pitcher had us off,” DeMeo said. “We had some good at-bats at the beginning of the game, but we just kept finding guys’ gloves. We were persistent.”

Those sevens runs would prove to be more than enough with Clesas dealing.

He cruised through the first two hitters in the top of the fifth, before a dribbler down the third base line in no man’s land from Andrew Rudecindo broke up the no-hit bid for Clesas. In a last ditch effort to potentially get Rudecindo, Clesas sprinted and bare-handed the slow roller, but the speedy Central lefty beat the throw easily.

Jesus Oterga followed with another fluke hit, flaring an inside pitch just over Rodriguez at third and into shallow left to put runners on first and second.

But Clesas would bear down to escape the inning, before cruising through the sixth and striking out two Central hitters in the seventh to put an emphatic close on a complete game effort.

Central registered two hits and Clesas yielded just one walk over his seven innings of work.

“I was just trying to get groundballs on them, I wasn’t trying to do anything special,” Clesas said of his strategy against Central. “I was just trying to paint in and out.”

Clesas was determined to take the next step after a successful freshman campaign, and now he is emerging as one of the top pitchers in the state.

“I just worked really hard this offseason,” Clesas said. “Late practices, I just put in work at the gym. I’ve been working really hard and it’s been paying off. I’ve been putting up some good numbers.”

Along with a deep pitching rotation, Johnston is also proving that it has one of the top lineups in the state, led by Coro, Michael, Raposo, Rodriguez, Luis Nunez and Clesas.

The Panthers are undoubtedly one of the top teams in a wide-open Division I, and they have high expectations as the season progresses.

“We’re 7-2 in this division at the halfway mark, it’s pretty neat,” DeMeo said. “The kids are excited about it. With seven wins, we probably already made the playoffs, but we want to win the division. We want to get to McCoy, that’s where everybody’s goal is. Our window is there, the opportunity is there.”

Inserting an All-State shortstop into the lineup will make Johnston even stronger. With nine games in the books after Monday, John Willette was set to make his season debut for the Panthers on Wednesday, when they hosted East Greenwich (6-2). Results from that game were unavailable at press time.

Johnston will also travel to East Providence for a 3:30 p.m. start on Friday.