The Streator High baseball team got off to sort of a slow start Tuesday in its Illinois Central Eight Conference series finale against Reed-Custer at the SHS Athletic Fields.

It being senior night, it was fitting that when the Bulldogs did finally get things going, it started with one of the roster’s seven 12th graders.

After seniors Joe Hoekstra and Cole Winterrowd – the latter twice – singled and were stranded over the first three innings, Clay Christoff started the fourth with an infield single.

Talon Melvin followed by reaching on an error that scored Christoff, and the Bulldogs were on their way to an eventual 9-2 victory to finish the ICE Conference sweep of the Comets.

“We started seeing the ball pretty well,” said Melvin, who scored twice in the ballgame and drove home another run, “and people were putting their hits in the right spot. It started off with Joe seeing the shift in the outfield and putting it out to right field [with two out in the second inning], and we all went from there.

“We were also playing small ball pretty well. We got a lot of bunts down and moved runners over – pretty important with the good competition we have coming up here in the near future."

Christoff’s single – he had three of them on the day, as did Winterrowd – started a three-run fourth frame that broke a scoreless tie. All three runs scored on Reed-Custer errors, breaking up a good if unusual pitchers’ duel between Streator junior southpaw Colin Byers and Comets right-handed sophomore Isaiah Aguilar.

While Aguilar opened the game by allowing one hit per inning but stranding them, Byers dealt with a lot of self-induced traffic on the base paths. He walked the bases loaded in the first, issued two more in the second and one in the third, but through four innings had a no-hitter intact with six walks, eight strikeouts and most importantly zero runs allowed.

“Give him credit,” Reed-Custer coach Jake Evans said of Byers. “He battled and was tough, and when he lost control of the zone, he stepped up and made big pitches when he needed to. You know, we had some runners on base there early, and we couldn’t capitalize. That was sort of the story of this one.

“[Aguilar] threw well. This was only his second varsity start, and I was really happy with how he threw the ball today. He kept us in it when the bats weren’t going, but defensively we let a few mistakes snowball on us.”

Reed-Custer – now 5-16 overall, 4-8 in the ICE – clawed back into the ballgame with a two-run top of the fifth that made it 3-2. Alejandro Fierro (two hits on the day), Dhane Debelak (RBI single) and Reed Newbrough (RBI single) delivered the hits in the inning.

Streator – now 8-13-1, 4-8 – reasserted control with a five-run home half of the fifth that chased Aguilar, with Melvin, Byers, Hoesktra and Maddan McCloskey all delivering RBIs in the decisive frame.

“It was nice to see a couple guys get bunts down and put a little pressure on them because the first three innings seemed like they flew by, and I was like, ‘I don’t know if we’re going to get anything going here,’ ” Streator coach Beau Albert said.

“It was nice to get the lead, then when they answer back with two, to jump on them and get four or five there right after that. It’s real easy to lie down when things aren’t going the way you want them to, so it was nice to see the boys respond back.”

The two starters finished as the pitchers of record – Aguilar (4 IP, 6 R, 3 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 4 K) suffering the loss; Byers (5 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 H, 6 BB, 10 K) earning the win.

Thomas Emery (2 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 1 K) worked in relief for Reed-Custer. Brennen Stillwell (2 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 0 K) came out of the bullpen in a non-save situation to finish things for the Bulldogs.

Christoff, Hoekstra, Melvin, Winterrowd, Quentin Stevens, Isaac Fowler and Keegan Angelico were the seven Streator seniors honored before the first pitch.