King’s Fork High School’s softball team has already been through some rough games in its young season, but Wednesday’s contest against visiting Nansemond River High School looked like it could be a break in the trend.

The Lady Bulldogs scored in the first inning and held a 1-0 lead for the majority of the game. It was in the sixth inning, however, that the Lady Warriors were finally able to score their runners on base, leading to a 3-2 victory.

The coaches from both teams were disappointed in the missed opportunities in the game.

King’s Fork sophomore pitcher Sydney Wash had eight strikeouts, but the Lady Bulldogs could not score when they needed to.

“We didn’t take advantage of opportunities that we had,” KF head coach Richard Froemel said. “We had people on base, and I tell the girls, ‘You can’t rely on Sydney to get us out of these things. We’ve got to produce runs.’ We’ve got to produce runs, and we’re just not getting it done.”

Nansemond River head coach Gabe Rogers cited similar problems that held his team back for five innings.

“A friend of mine always jokes about the softball gods,” he said. “In the first five innings, we probably left, I don’t know, 10 or 11 batters on base. Every inning, we had kids in scoring position and we never got them home … And you keep doing this and, eventually, like me and my buddy say, ‘Eventually the softball gods aren’t going to give you any more runners on base if you can’t get them in.’”

The Lady Warriors continued their trend of getting base runners in the sixth, but they capitalized that time when Jac Mounie came up to bat.

“Jac Mounie had a great game,” Rogers said. “She wound up batting 3-for-4. She wound up having the go-ahead RBI.”

She batted in Jazmine Card and Sydney Glover to make it 3-1.

King’s Fork junior Kayla Jones scored in the bottom of the sixth, but the Lady Bulldogs could not muster any more.

The Lady Bulldogs have suffered several close losses this year. They had a 1-0 loss to Grassfield High School, a 4-1 loss to Western Branch High School that was 1-1 until the sixth and a 4-3 loss to Great Bridge High School.

Rogers was happy with the performance his pitcher, freshman Lauren Maddrey, and he also expressed respect for opposing pitcher Sydney Wash.

“She’s a phenomenal pitcher,” he said. “She’s a such a fierce competitive and she really does command lot of respect in the circle.”

Nansemond River (5-1, 5-1) hosts Western Branch today while Indian River High School comes to play King’s Fork (1-4, 1-4) at the same time.