The stories of Nansemond River High School’s baseball and softball teams have been quite similar this season, and on Monday, they both came to shocking and unfortunate conclusions at home in the Region 4A South quarterfinals.

Facing Hanover High School, the defending Group 4A state champions that the Warriors had defeated earlier this season, NR fell behind 6-0 in the first inning and lost 12-1 in a mercy rule-shortened contest.

“We picked a bad night to have a bad game,” Warriors coach Mark Stuffel said.

The Lady Warriors faced Glen Allen High School, fell behind 4-0 through four innings and lost 8-1.

“We hit a buzz saw right there, buddy,” Lady Warriors coach Gabe Rogers said. “That’s the game of softball for you, though.”

Though both Nansemond River squads had incredibly successful seasons, entering Monday with a combined record of 38-6, they both had a similar issue on the night.

“We just hit right at their kids all night long,” Rogers said.

Stuffel echoed this thought later on in the evening when he said, “As a team, I thought we actually swung it pretty well, we just hit it at people.”

The Warriors (19-5) finished with seven hits, while the Hawks had 11.

NR senior Robert Fitzwater went 3-for-3 with a single, double and then a solo home run in his final high school at-bat.

Senior Kieton Rivers had a single, junior Dion Jordan went 1-for-2 and sophomore Jarret Henderson also went 1-for-2.

But the Warriors also uncharacteristically had four errors, they were victims of some bad hops of the ball and the calls at the plate were not going their way, either, particularly in the first inning. This led to a couple of walks and a couple of hits, followed up by some sloppy play.

While the Lady Warriors (19-3) had at least three errors, they also featured several standouts.

“Lauren (Maddrey) didn’t throw bad,” Rogers said. “They just hit her,” finishing with 10 hits.

She still threw 10 strikeouts, though, and she also had two hits at the plate, as did freshman Ashlyn Rogers.

Both coaches also highlighted the play of their opponents.

“They did a great job of keeping us from playing our kind of softball, which is (to) force a lot of action,” Rogers said of the Lady Jaguars.

Of the Hawks, Stuffel said, “We played a good team. They made every single play. I think they turned three double plays on us.”