Nansemond River High School’s baseball team continued the offensive progress it displayed earlier in the week with an 11-1 mercy-rule victory on Friday over visiting Deep Creek High School.

The Warriors started fast, with four runs in the first inning.

“We swung pretty good, got runners on base,” sophomore Kieton Rivers said.

Rivers contributed by going 2-for-4 with two triples.

“We jumped out and got enough runs where we were able to get a lot of guys in the game that we haven’t been able to work in very much,” Nansemond River head coach Mark Stuffel said.

The Warriors had struggled early in the season with getting runners on base, but Wednesday’s game against Lakeland and Friday represented clear evidence that Nansemond River’s offense has arrived.

“Offensively, even a lot of our outs were well-hit balls,” Stuffel said. “We did a good job, we sat back more, we worked the right side.”

Pitching was a positive for the Warriors, as well.

“Matt (Boone) started the game on the mound, pitched very well, and had a few hits himself,” Stuffel said.

After the game, Boone spoke about the level of confidence he had during Friday’s match-up.

“It was real high,” he said. “The past few outings with my pitching have been phenomenal, getting the outs, getting ground balls, getting some balls to the defense. It was really good.”

His change-up was particularly effective.

“And that’s what our guys threw really well tonight,” Stuffel said. “All three of them threw great change-ups.”

Junior Trevor Riggs and sophomore Ethan Woodruff made up the trio of pitchers with Boone.

Stuffel said his team still has some things it needs to clean up defensively, but it did have a couple of particularly impressive moments.

In the third inning, for instance, with the score 4-0, the Hornets loaded the bases with no outs.

“The fact that we held them to just one run in that inning was just great,” Stuffel said.

He also gave special credit to senior left-fielder Brandon Savage.

“Two catches he had with runners in scoring position, going back on balls, he was great,” Stuffel said. “Defensively, he was probably our shining star.”

Nansemond River (3-2, 3-2) travels to King’s Fork High School on Tuesday.