King’s Fork and Nansemond River traded dramatic go-ahead blasts to open their softball seasons Tuesday but as the home side, King’s Fork got its game-winning runs in the last half of the seventh inning on Monica Logwood’s two-out, two-run shot into left-center field for an 8-7 victory over its city rival.

On King’s Fork’s baseball diamond, the outcome was much more straightforward after Nansemond River put six runs on the board in the second inning. NR pitchers Josh Howard, Zack Rice and Dylan Roach combined to lead the Warriors to an 8-1 win.

Both softball sides got within an out of winning. The Lady Bulldogs were one strike away from finishing a win in the top of the seventh before NR’s Amanda Lafferty changed everything with one powerful swing.

With King’s Fork up 6-4 and Lady Warriors on second and third, Lafferty smashed a line drive that carried until it cleared the left-center field fence for a three-run home run and NR’s first lead of the game.

The Lady Bulldogs answered what looked like Nansemond River’s winning runs by starting a rally of their own right away. Kristin Moore and Niki Cuevas knocked singles to open the KF seventh. Brittany Raynor’s groundout moved Moore and Cuevas up a bag.

The Lady Warriors got the second out with third baseman Hope Mounie fielding Taylor Davis’s chopper and throwing home just in time for Loren Daubenspeck to put the tag on a sliding Moore.

Logwood provided the final heroics, smashing a liner that barely cleared Alex Keiser’s leap at shortstop but was hit hard enough to skip to the fence in the gap. Davis raced around from first and easily scored the winning run.

“I’d never been a part of anything like that,” said King’s Fork head coach Richard Froemel.

King’s Fork scored a pair of runs in each of the first two innings. The Lady Warriors answered with a four-run rally in the third.

Both pitchers, KF’s Chelsea Holecek and NR’s Sydney Glover, took over through the middle innings. Glover retired 10 of 11 KF batters in one stretch and Holecek kept NR quiet in the fourth and fifth. Raynor relieved Holecek in the sixth and kept NR off the board after a double by Keiser started the frame.

The Lady Bulldogs rallied to reclaim the lead in the sixth. KF loaded the bases with one out but Glover fielded a hard chop back to the circle and fired home for the second out.

Vick hit a hard drive into left field. NR’s Randi-Jo Coffey came in, made a sliding try for the catch, but had the ball pop in and out of her glove. Davis and Logwood, who both reached with singles, came in to score for a 6-4 KF lead. It was only the first of three surprising rallies.

“It’s the chemistry on this team. We play well together. Every one of the girls is capable of doing something like that and everyone believes in each other. It’s almost eerie kind of,” Froemel said.

“It was great to see (the game-winning hit) because Monica’s been killing the ball,” he said.

For the Lady Warriors, Kayla Coburn went 3-for-4 with two runs in the third spot of the order. Mounie was 2-for-3 with two runs. Lafferty drove in four RBI.

Logwood was 3-for-4 with two runs and the two last-gasp RBI. Jennifer Delucia, Cuevas and Davis had two hits each. Davis scored three runs and Vick totaled three RBI.

The Warrior baseball team took care of most of the drama by sending 11 batters to the plate for a six-run outburst early on against the Bulldogs.

Clean-up hitter Kyle Moore started the NR second with a double into left. Zach Vann, Hayden Champigny, Tyler Brown, Ryan O’Hara and Moore, with his second at-bat in the inning, drove in one run each in the rally. Two Bulldog errors made the Warrior inning bigger and NR’s pitching didn’t need the help.

Josh Howard started and pitched four innings, allowing one run on four hits and one walk. Rice and Dylan Roach took care of the last three innings.

At the plate, Moore was 3-for-4 and reached base all four times up. Brown and Vann knocked two hits each.

Both Nansemond River teams host Western Branch Friday with both games set for 5:30 p.m. Both King’s Fork teams travel to Deep Creek Friday evening.