The 2026 Streator High baseball team has a proven No. 1 bat and proven No. 1 and No. 2 conference starting pitchers.

If that bat and those arms are as good as expected, what the rest of the Bulldogs can do around them could be the deciding factor if this spring’s Streator ballclub can reach its lofty goals after a pair of sub-.500 seasons in 2025 and 2024.

“Twenty wins would be considered a good season, I think,” ninth-year Bulldogs coach Beau Albert (100-108-1) said. “And every year you want to go for a conference championship. We let some teams that I didn’t think were better than us last year beat us in the conference. This year, our goal is to go out there and try to win the conference, let the cards fall where they may.

“And then once you get into the regional, you win that first one and you’re in a regional championship game. And we know, anything can happen when you get that plus-one game.”

Streator’s last regional title came as an exclamation point on its last 20-win season in 2023.

To reach those heights this season, Streator will look to leadership from its three returning Times All-Area Team performers.

That starts with two-time Times All-Area first-team selection 1B/DH Cole Winterrowd, the imposing slugger coming off a season in which he batted .416 with 13 doubles, a triple, four home runs and 29 RBIs.

“He’s the guy who has led us the last two years, Offensive MVP, two-time all-conference selection,” Albert said of Winterrowd. “If he just does what he’s done or even a little bit better, that’s fantastic for us. One of the biggest keys for us this year is him doing what we expect him to do, but then we have to get production throughout the rest of the lineup. ...

“That will be one of the key factors in how well we do this year, I think.”

The same can be said in relation to his pitching staff. The Bulldogs have two arms back who were pivotal contributors a year ago – senior RHP/3B Clay Christoff (4-6 record, 55 innings pitched, Times All-Area second team in 2025) and LHP/OF Colin Byers (4-2 record, 34⅓ innings pitched, Times All-Area honorable mention).

“Clay’s got all the tools. He’s got great velocity and two other pitches,” Albert said. “We just need Clay to be consistent, know when to go after guys and just put them down. Don’t try to get cute with them, just be that bulldog on the mound that we need to start the first game of a two-game conference series.

“And really, it’s the same with Byers. He had some really bright spots last year. He [wasn’t going against Washington’s] best pitcher because it was a Saturday, but we beat a team that won a sectional championship 2-1 with Byers on the mound. I don’t think the stage is too big for him.

“We just need those two guys to be consistent. I think we’ll play pretty good defense behind them.”

Slotted in behind them looks to be junior P/UT Brennan Stillwell and junior P/OF Isaac Melvin in pivotal nonconference starter/conference reliever roles. Fellow juniors P/UT Maddon McCloskey and P/3B Keegan Gassman also project as relievers/spot starters.

As for the defense/lineup outside of Winterrowd, it will include some combination of the above pitching prospects along with senior SS Keegan Angelico, C Joe Hoekstra, OF Talon Melvin, OF Quentin Stevens and UT Isaac Fowler along with junior 1B Carter Compton, OF Will Heider and C/1B Jarrod Clark.

As the schedule sits now, the Bulldogs are slated to open the season with a six-game homestand, including four games this opening week against Prairie Central (Tuesday), Hall (Wednesday), Sandwich (Friday) and Newark (Saturday).