The Nansemond River High School softball team beat Menchville 8-1 on Wednesday, advancing to the Conference 10 championship on Thursday.

Things got off to a quick start against Menchville, with the Lady Warriors snagging five runs in the second inning on their way to an easy win.

Nansemond River, at 19-2 and at the top of the conference standings, has clinched a regional berth.

NRHS coach Gabe Rogers doesn’t look at the season as a complete thing but tends to focus on each part individually.

“We don’t try to look at the season as a whole,” he said. “What we try to do is break things down and set goals.”

Rogers said that earlier in the season their goal was just to play well, and then when the team got to conference play, the goal was to win the conference regular season so they could get the automatic berth to regional.

The Lady Warriors have accomplished that goal and are excited about their chances going forward.

The stand out player of the game against Menchville was pitcher Madison Rhoads, who had 13 strikeouts, giving up only four hits in seven innings.

“She did a fantastic job for us tonight,” Rogers said.

“We’re just trying to stay loose in this tournament, because no matter what happens — whether we win or lose — we’re still going to get into regional as the No. 1 seed from our conference,” he added.

Although his team has done well throughout the season, Rogers still sees room for improvement. He describes his team’s hitting as being sporadic, so he is looking for the team to focus more on having good at-bats and making solid contact with the ball.

“I felt we hit well tonight,” said Rogers.

The Lady Warriors will play in the Conference 10 tournament championship against Gloucester High School at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the Stoney Run Athletic Complex in Newport News.