The talented senior class that has helped lay a strong foundation for Nansemond River High School softball since 2013 helped the Lady Warriors open the 2016 season with an impressive win on Wednesday.

Nansemond River hosted one of the best teams in the area, First Colonial High School, and shut out the Lady Patriots 6-0.

Last year, the Lady Warriors started their season against Grassfield High School.

“When we beat Grassfield, I told the girls, I said, ‘When the season’s over, you’ll look back and realize how big of a win this was,’” Nansemond River coach Gabe Rogers said. “And lo and behold, Grassfield goes on and wins (Group 6A) states.”

“This year, we come out and start off with a very quality team,” Rogers said of First Colonial, which was the 2015 Group 6A runner-up. “Honestly, I don’t know if we’ll see another team that will hit the ball as well as that team hit.”

“First Colonial is known for a great hitting lineup, and what I told the girls tonight was, ‘You’ll look back at this game this year,’ and I said, ‘When the season is over, you will have done something that nobody else will be able to do this season — you shut them out,’” Rogers said.

Wednesday’s game was scoreless through the first three innings, but the Lady Warriors scored twice in the fourth, once in the fifth and thrice in the sixth.

“It was just a really good defensive game for us, and it was a great opening game for Lauren (Maddrey),” Rogers said, referring to one of his team’s seven seniors.

Maddrey pitched all seven innings, throwing eight strikeouts and giving up only five hits.

“We really went into this game with the mindset of we’re going to start Lauren to kind of get her going and then we’re going to bring Maddie (Rhoads) in and let Maddie come in and work some innings, as well,” Rogers said.

That is part of his plan this season, as Rhoads, a junior, has stepped up and shown a lot of promise in the circle.

“We have high expectations for her,” Rogers said. “Maddie’s going to throw tomorrow against Oscar Smith (High School). She’s going to throw the whole game.”

But on Wednesday, Maddrey started getting into a groove.

“When a pitcher gets into a groove, you don’t want to kind of mess that up,” Rogers said. “The big thing about tonight was (the Lady Patriots) didn’t get a big turnover in their lineup. The top of the lineup saw Lauren three times — that was it, which was a benefit to us.”

Nansemond River had multiple offensive stars, including senior catcher Calah Savage, who went 2-for-3 with a single and a double Senior third baseman Maddie McGrath went 2-for-3 with two doubles, and junior left fielder Kelly Lafferty went 2-for-3 with a single, a double and two runs batted in.

The Lady Warriors had a total of 11 hits on the night. They took advantage more than once of the First Colonial outfielders playing too far up in Nansemond River’s expansive 230-foot deep field.

“If we’d played on a 200-foot fence, we might have had four girls hit one out tonight,” Rogers said. “I know Savage just flat-out yoked one, Kelly yoked one, McGrath yoked one and even Alayah (McCullough). She’s a strong kid.”

“We’re very talented — not just with the nine that are on the field,” Rogers said of his team. “I’ve got girls in this dugout that can go and start on a lot of other varsity teams. We’re extremely blessed and lucky to have the talent that we have out here in Suffolk.”

The Lady Warriors went 19-3 last season with largely the same group of players they have this year, though particularly key departures include center fielder Morgan Lowers and first baseman Emily Carson, who graduated.

The team was eliminated in the Region 4A South quarterfinals, a disappointment after it reached the state semifinals the year before. But expectations are once again high, even though it has joined Group 5A and is in a more challenging conference.

“I expect all the seniors to lead this year,” Rogers said. “They all bring such a different attitude to the table, and they all are so important.”

When Maddrey is not playing in the circle, she will be starting in left field. Senior Lauren Davis is starting at first base, senior Jaclyn Mounie plays second base, senior KateLynn Hodgkiss is at shortstop, McGrath is at third base, sophomore Ashlyn Rogers plays center field, junior Katelyn Biando is in right field and Savage is behind the plate.

Nansemond River (1-0) is set to visit Oscar Smith on Thursday and host Deep Creek High School on Friday.