The Seneca baseball team weathered a late comeback effort and held off Streator in a tense back-and-forth, nonconference game Friday on the turf in Seneca, 10-9.

Streator (6-11-1) erased a four-run deficit with a two-out, seven-run, fifth-inning rally, stringing together a mix of clutch base hits, walks and a key error to take the lead late.

Despite the deflating comeback inning and suddenly being down three runs, Seneca (7-10) was not discouraged, answering in the bottom of the sixth and reclaiming the lead. After scoring two runs to cut the lead to 9-8 in the sixth, Fighting Irish first baseman Grady Hall delivered a go-ahead, two-run single.

“We’ve had a lot of times where things unravel with this team, but the message today was, ‘If you get punched, you punch back,’ ” Seneca coach Tim Brungard said. “Our guys didn’t give up. They punched right back, and I’m proud of them.”

Brungard credited his team’s ability to respond under pressure, with contributions from a mix of underclassmen and veterans.

“We’ve got freshmen through seniors contributing,” he said. “They show up every day and play hard, no matter the score.”

Specifically, Brungard highlighted his team’s defensive effort, pointing to Vinny Corrado’s impact in right field despite not being in the starting lineup. Corrado made a running catch at the fence in the first inning and later delivered a perfect throw home on a flyout to hold the runner with the bases loaded.

“We’ve started to play better and better defensively as the season’s gone on, and Corrado made two huge plays for us out there. The catch against the fence was big, but even more important was the fly ball where he gunned it in and held the runner at third,” Brungard said. “You never know what happens if that run scores, especially in a one-run game.”

Pitcher and shortstop Cam Shriey went 2 for 3 with a home run, three RBIs and a walk, while catcher Joey Arnold was 1 for 2 with a walk, a hit by pitch and two runs scored.

Wyatt Holman earned the win in relief, allowing one hit over 1 1/3 scoreless innings. Brady Haines recorded the save. Shriey started for Seneca, allowing seven runs on 10 hits over 4 2/3 innings.

Despite the loss, the Bulldogs’ at-bats seemed to get better and better as the game went on. It culminated with the seven-run fifth.

Streator coach Beau Albert said his team showed growth offensively after focusing on situational hitting in practice recently.

“We have been working on our two-strike approach this week, because we’ve had way too many empty at-bats with runners in scoring position,” Albert said. “We told our guys to hunt their pitch early and be aggressive today. Then with two strikes, battle. We did a much better job of that today. ...

“It was a tough loss, but I told these guys that they should be proud of the way they took at-bats.”

Center fielder Colin Byers went 2 for 4 with a home run, a walk and two RBIs, while third baseman Clay Christoff was 1 for 2 with three walks, a home run and an RBI.

Keegan Gassman took the loss for Streator, surrendering five runs, two earned, across 3 1/3 innings. Starter Brennen Stillwell allowed five runs, though only two hits, while issuing five walks.