The Nansemond River High School softball team achieved wins against its Suffolk rivals on Tuesday and Monday via slightly different paths.

On Tuesday, the Lady Warriors were down 5-0 after 2.5 innings against visiting Lakeland High School but rallied for a 6-5 victory. On Monday, Nansemond River never trailed, winning 11-1 in a mercy rule-shortened contest against host King’s Fork High School.

Lady Warriors junior pitcher Madison Rhoads was throwing strikeouts on Tuesday, but she also gave up some walks and the Lady Cavaliers got some base hits.

“Early on, I thought Lakeland did a great job of taking advantage of opportunities,” Nansemond River coach Gabe Rogers said.

The Lady Cavs scored three runs in the second inning and two in the third. In the bottom of the third, the Lady Warriors started their comeback, making it 5-2.

Rogers said he did not feel his team played well, but he was happy it was able to come back.

“We talk about it all the time — when we’re chasing runs, we’re not trying to get all those runs back in one swing,” he said.

The goal was to chip away at the lead, little-by-little, inning-by-inning, while playing good defense, so as to work themselves back into the game.

“They were able to do that,” Rogers said.

Nansemond River scored two runs in the third, tied the game with three runs in the fifth and got the winning run in the bottom of the sixth.

In the top of the seventh, “we went one, two, three and came out with the victory,” Rogers said.

Senior Lauren Maddrey took over in the circle in the second, pitched 5.1 innings on the day, and was able to keep Lakeland at bay. She also contributed a couple of base hits on offense.

The Lady Warriors out-hit the Lady Cavaliers 6-5 and had two errors to Lakeland’s four.

“Lauren (Davis) was swinging the bat well,” Rogers said after noting she started the bottom of the sixth off with a big triple.

Also active on offense was junior Kelly Lafferty with two runs batted in, sophomore Hannah Gill with a key single in the fifth and senior Maddie McGrath who produced the game-winning RBI.

Against King’s Fork on Monday, “obviously, we hit better that game than we did last night,” Rogers said on Wednesday. “I think we were a little more fresh Monday night than we were last night.”

Nansemond River generated 14 hits, while the Lady Bulldogs had five. The Lady Warriors still had an error, but King’s Fork produced four of them.

Maddrey pitched all six innings, throwing eight strikeouts and allowing only one walk.

Offense, senior Jaclyn Mounie, junior Katelyn Biando and Lafferty had three hits apiece.

The Lady Cavaliers’ performance against Nansemond River on Tuesday was just the latest example of how much they have improved this season, responding to new coach James Roddy.

“They’re starting to buy into my philosophy,” he said. “The last three or four games, I’ve been very pleased.”

Lakeland visited Grassfield High School on April 11 and held the Lady Grizzlies scoreless for six innings, allowing one run in the seventh to narrowly fall 1-0.

On Friday, the Lady Cavs trounced visiting Indian River High School 11-1.

Lakeland senior Victoria Abel threw five strikeouts and allowed only two walks against Grassfield, then she gave up only two hits against the Lady Braves.

“Tori’s come a long ways pitching,” Roddy said.

There have also been notable offensive standouts in recent games.

Against Nansemond River, Lady Cavaliers sophomore Brittney Strickland went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, Abel went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and junior Whitney Jones had a hit and an RBI.

Jones was 3-for-4 against Indian River and 2-for-4 against Grassfield.

“She’s come all the way from batting seventh in our lineup to batting third,” Roddy said.

Lakeland (2-6) visits I.C. Norcom High School on Friday, while King’s Fork (6-5) hosts Deep Creek High School. The Lady Warriors (12-2) return to action on Tuesday, hosting Gloucester High School.