Warriors Keeps District Title Hopes Alive
Andy and Justin Topping keep the Warriors in the thick of things in a wild Southeastern District finish *Photo by Juston Stone
The Nansemond River Warriors' baseball team moved one step closer to pulling off the unthinkable yesterday with an impressive 6-1 win over Western Branch. The win keeps the Warriors chances of winning the Southeastern District title alive while the loss means the Bruins of Western Branch will have to at least advance to the district tournament final in order to gain a birth into the Eastern Region tournament.
Nansemond River has been white hot as of late and has emerged as a dangerous dark horse in a traditionally tough district and Warrior head coach Mark Stuffel has been more than pleased with his team's late season surge. "We're just clicking right now," he says.
Erickson Keeton threw a complete game for River and Jermaine Berry went 3-3 with 2 doubles and 4 RBI. Dover took the loss for the Bruins and Western Branch will turn to its Ace, Chad O'Connor today against Hickory and Nansemond River will be rooting for O'Connor as they still need a lot of help to win the district crown.
The Warriors will have to rely on Western Branch to turn around and defeat the Hickory Hawks this afternoon and then will need Hickory to bounce back and defeat Great Bridge in the season finale on Wednesday. If those two things happen, there would be a three-way tie for first place between Hickory, Great Bridge, and Nansemond River which would then result in a probable play-off before the district tournament begins.
If Hickory defeats Western Branch today, Nansemond River would be unable to win a share of the regular season district title.
Stay tuned for more details.
