Nansemond River High School’s baseball team went bear hunting on Friday and got what they came for.

Facing their quarry on the diamond, the Warriors made all the plays they had to and walked away with a 1-0 victory over the visiting Grassfield High School Grizzlies.

“Tonight was their first loss of the season, and they were just ranked top 50 in the nation, so it was a good win,” Nansemond River coach Mark Stuffel said. “The kids were excited. It’s a game I knew we could win.”

A glance at the Warriors’ record might make the win seem a bit surprising, as they entered Friday’s game at .500.

“We’ve had a very difficult schedule,” Stuffel said. “We’ve had five losses, but we’ve had some big wins, too.”

The losses have been to Hickory High School, Great Bridge High School and talented teams in Arizona, California and New York that the Warriors played over spring break in Arizona.

“We haven’t lost to a bad team,” Stuffel said. “Every team that’s beat us has been a good baseball team.”

Among the big wins was an April 6 victory over Western Branch High School, which won the Group 6A state championship in 2014.

Friday’s big victory over the Grizzlies featured a battle on the mound between Warriors senior Michael Blanchard, an Old Dominion University commit, and Grassfield senior Garrett Stallings, set to play for the University of Tennessee.

The Grizzlies committed one error in the game, and it came in the fifth inning.

“Garrett had a perfect game going until then,” Stuffel said.

Warriors senior Matthew Holt hit a hard ground ball to second.

“The second baseman threw it away to first,” Stuffel said. “He threw it in the dirt, and the first baseman couldn’t pick it,” so Holt was safe.

Stuffel put senior Brendan Ratkovich in for Holt as the base runner, and senior Johnny Mayer hit a sacrifice to send him to second base.

“Then Jarret Henderson got the hit to score the run,” the coach said of the RBI single. “Our only hit scored the run.”

Grassfield managed three hits, and Nansemond River committed two errors, but the Grizzlies could not capitalize on them.

“Even after the two errors, (Blanchard) did what he does and got us some ground balls to get out,” Stuffel said.

Blanchard and Stallings now both have 4-1 records on the mound this season and combined for 19 strikeouts on Friday, nine coming from Blanchard, who threw all seven innings, needing only 71 pitches.

Nansemond River (6-5) visits King’s Fork High School on Monday and hosts Lakeland High School on Tuesday.