Nansemond River High School will officially open its baseball season up in the coming days. The Warriors are eager to see how they defend their state championship from last year.

The Warriors graduated 11 players last year, so a whole new group will be playing this year. They’re young but still plan to be competitive this season.

Even though many eyes will be on the Warriors this year, coach Mark Stuffel doesn’t feel his team will endure any pressure.

“We have a pretty good group,” Stuffel said. “Anytime you graduate the number of kids we did, and they go on to play college ball, is kind of tough. I don’t think there will be any pressure. Our goal is to put our team in a position to make a run. We don’t have the same team returning, so I don’t think there’s any pressure.”

NRHS is young in a few places on their roster, so Stuffel knows he will have to do more teaching this year. The Warriors program is all about development and getting players to the next level to play.

Returning for the Warriors this year junior Gage Williams, who is currently committed to play baseball at Virginia Tech. Williams will be one of the main pitchers for the team this year. He also pitched in the Warriors’ state championship win last year. Senior Jarrett Henderson is another solid pitcher who will form a solid duo with Williams.

Jarrett Mayer, a junior, will play shortstop. Zack Martin is another player that rounds out a solid group of contributors for the Warriors this season.

The Warriors will start their season off at home against Oscar Smith High School at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“We’ve put a lot of work in over the winter to get to this point,” Stuffel said. “To play games with a little more meaning and compete with other teams will be good.”