The Nansemond River High School and King’s Fork High School baseball teams entered Thursday’s showdown against each other with the Ironclad Conference regular season title on the line, as well as the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.

While the Bulldogs handed the Warriors a loss earlier in the season, Nansemond River avenged it on Thursday with an 8-4 victory at King’s Fork.

“We did everything really well last night,” Warriors coach Mark Stuffel said on Friday.

Junior pitcher Michael Blanchard improved to 5-1 on the mound, and Stuffel noted he “held them hitless for four innings,” carrying a perfect game into the fifth before junior Josh Bush got a hit for the Bulldogs.

Nansemond River was errorless on defense, and “we haven’t made an error in four or five games now,” Stuffel said.

King’s Fork coach Pat Stafford was complimentary of the Warriors’ offense and defense.

“Cal Bailey didn’t pitch bad for us, they just hit him, and they made all the great defensive plays,” he said, also noting the majority of the runs the Warriors scored were earned.

Offensively, Nansemond River generated 10 hits. Senior Robert Fitzwater hit his third home run of the season, a two-run shot in the third inning. Senior Kieton Rivers and junior Dion Jordan had two hits apiece.

This is the second consecutive year the Warriors have won the conference for the regular season and earned the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.

“It’s great,” Stuffel said. “It’s what the kids have worked hard for all season.”

The Bulldogs, who defeated the Warriors 2-1 at Nansemond River on April 1, could not get on the board early on Thursday and found themselves in an 8-0 hole going into the bottom of the sixth inning.

Stafford said he felt like his players were hitting the ball throughout the game, but against Blanchard, the hits were mostly ground balls that turned into ground outs.

The coach said that as the game went on, “we started seeing the ball better” and started squaring up better. KF finished the game with five hits.

Senior Bryce Jones helped fuel a Bulldogs rally that started in the sixth inning.

“He had a two-RBI single, so he really came up with a big hit to score Duke Santora and Cal Bailey,” Stafford said.

Sophomore Blake Sargent hit a hard line drive in the seventh that turned out to be a two-RBI double.

Santora and Bailey, both seniors, each had a single on the night.

King’s Fork (9-11, 8-2) returns to the diamond on Wednesday when it plays in the semifinals of the Ironclad Conference tournament, hosted by Nansemond River. As the No. 2 seed, the Bulldogs get a first-round bye and will play the winner of the first-round game featuring the No. 3 and No. 6 seeds.

The Bulldogs split their regular season contests with No. 3 Denbigh High School, so should the Patriots advance, it would set up a dramatic third meeting with a regional berth and a trip to the conference tournament final on the line.

Nansemond River (16-4, 9-1) will also play on Wednesday against the winner of the first-round game featuring the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds.