The beginning of Thursday’s start in the pitching circle at Streator wasn’t what Ottawa‘s Kennedy Kane had in mind, Bulldogs leadoff hitter Caitlin Talty taking the freshman deep for a solo homer to answer Ottawa’s own solo homer in the top of the first by Piper Lewis.

Things got better from there for Kane and the rest of the Pirates.

Kane did not allow another hit, the Pirates did not allow another run, and the Ottawa offense quickly retook the lead and slowly but surely added insurance for a 5-1 triumph at the SHS Athletic Fields.

“[Talty] gave me a hard time,” Kane said of her first batter faced Thursday. “She was fouling off balls a lot, got that one. After that at-bat from her, I thought, ‘I’ve got to get a little more competitive with my pitches.’ I left that one over the plate a little bit. I needed to be a little more on the corners, not give them so much.

“My curveball and my screwball on the corners were working really well, and I had the speed going with them too. But it was mainly the curveball for me. I had it right on the corner, money every time.”

Ottawa improved to 12-6.

Streator falls to 4-14.

Kane (win, 4 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 8 K) pitched scoreless second, third and fourth innings after Talty’s homer to lead off the bottom of the first. Kane was then relieved by Pirates ace Addie Russell (save, 3 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 BB, 7 K) in the fifth inning.

Russell had a rocky beginning herself when Streator’s Ava Glisson doubled with two away. Russell wiggled off the hook with the lead intact, though, thanks to right fielder Rylee Harsted robbing Morgan Kostal of a potential game-tying home run right at the yellow piping to end the fifth-inning threat.

Talty’s homer and Glisson’s double turned out to be Streator’s only hits.

“C.T. has been swinging the bat really well, and she got a hold of that first one,” Streator coach Louis Ondrey said. “You know, leadoff home run, you think, ‘OK, we’re going to put some runs up today.’ Then we were kind of hitting it to everybody after that. ...

“But I’m very happy with how we played today. We’re young, and we’re just coming around. We’re learning, the team’s playing tough, and we’re out there battling.

“It’s a lot better than we were doing four weeks ago.”

Bulldogs pitcher Raegan Morgan (loss, 6+ IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 5 BB, 6 K) kept her team in the game despite allowing the first-inning homer to Piper Lewis herself. Ottawa added one run against her in the third on a Rylee Harsted RBI grounder, another in the fifth when Teagan Darif singled, stole second and scored on an error, then two in the sixth on a Darif two-RBI, Texas-league double.

Darif was the game’s only player with multiple hits.

The Pirates threatened to add even more insurance in the top of the seventh, but Streator went to reliever Maddie Campbell, who recorded three quick outs and stranded inherited runners at second and third, left fielder Kieran Black making a nice retreating catch at the fence to end the threat.

The momentum didn’t carry over to the home half, though, with Russell striking out the side 1-2-3 in the seventh to save it for Kane and end the meeting of the Route 23 rivals.

“I thought Ken did well in the circle, pounded the zone for us,” Pirates coach Adam Lewis said. “We’ve been really clean the past couple weeks defensively, and today wasn’t our cleanest day defensively (two errors), but we made adjustments (offensively) late in the game, and that’s kind of what we’ve been doing too.

“I’d like to see us start a little faster, but making adjustments and scoring runs late has kind of been our M.O. here the last week and a half or so.”