Peyton Marin wasn’t a starter for the Streator Bulldogs softball team Monday for its Illinois Central Eight Conference opener against the visiting Peotone Blue Devils.

She turned out to be a finisher.

Marin’s two-run double to left field in the home half of the sixth inning broke a tie game and proved to be the winning knock Monday in the Bulldogs’ 8-6 victory.

Marin entered the game in the opening inning when starting cleanup hitter and fellow freshman Maddie Campbell was forced to leave with an illness.

Her double came one pitch after she missed a bunt attempt. Instead of advancing baserunners Ayla Morgan and Ava Glisson, Marin drove them both home with a fly ball that went just over the outstretched glove of Peotone left fielder Abby Feldmeier and rolled to the fence.

“I knew [I might enter the game], because our coaches said we might need to replace [Campbell], and I was ready to go in,” Marin said. “In that last at-bat, I had the mindset that I needed to just hit the ball and get on base, move the runners so we could get those runs. ...

“And I was kind of glad [coach Louis Ondrey took off the bunt with one strike], because I trust my swing more than my bunting. I don’t usually bunt a lot.”

With the triumph, Streator improves to 2-5 overall, 1-0 in the ICE. Peotone falls to 0-3, 0-1.

Marin finished with two hits and the two RBIs that turned back a Peotone rally that had just turned a 6-2 game into a 6-6 tie. Morgan Kostal tripled twice, Kieron Black and Glisson also provided two hits apiece, and Caitlin Talty tagged an RBI double as part of an 11-hit attack for the Bulldogs against Blue Devils pitcher and Louisville commit Sophie Klawitter (6 IP, 5 ER, 11 H, 1 BB, 9 K).

“We’ve faced Sophie, this is our fourth year now, so we know kind of what to expect, and the girls brought it,” Ondrey said. “I was happy they lost their nerves and actually went up there and swung the bats this time against her. ...

“Maddie got sick, which was unfortunate because she’s a great hitter, but Peyton went in there and filled her shoes great. I wasn’t concerned, though. Friday at practice, [Marin] was swinging the bat really well. I had a lot of confidence in her going in there.”

Peotone was led on the day by Payton Schnelle’s three-single, one-RBI performance, a pair of hits from both leadoff batter Jillian Roark and No. 3 hitter Mary Klawitter (RBI), plus a hit and an RBI off the bats of both Paisley Schnelle and Sophie Klawitter. It led 2-0 after a half inning, but surrendered that lead immediately in the bottom of the first. Streator built its advantage to 6-2 by the close of the third.

“It was a really good ballgame,” Peotone coach Kim Pagliarulo said. “The first three innings we were not in the game though. We were playing about 25% of how we normally play, and that just kills you to have even a single inning where you’re not in the game.

“It was a rough start, but we rallied together, got our energy back, and it showed in how we came back.”

The Blue Devils chipped their way back into the ballgame with two runs in the fourth and tied it with two in the fifth. Sophie Klawitter’s run-scoring triple to left-center and Mary Klawitter’s subsequent bloop single to score her tied things 6-6.

Streator hurler Natalya Solis (3 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 3 K) in relief of starter Raegan Morgan (4 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 3 K) managed to stop the Peotone rally right there, put up a scoreless sixth to set the stage for Marin’s heroics and finally worked around two seventh-inning singles to earn the pitching win.

The Bulldogs are scheduled to complete the Illinois Central Eight Conference series with the Blue Devils in Peotone on Tuesday.