BELHAVEN — Pungo lost two games in a row for the first time this season on Thursday. The Raiders dropped a 7-1 decision at the conference’s No. 1 club Lawrence Academy before a 4-2 shortcoming at home against rival Terra Ceia.

The loss was only Pungo’s third of the season, and second in conference play, but it may have put the league’s top spot out of reach. The Warriors are a perfect 8-0 in the Tarheel Independent Conference. They would need to lose both — including a rematch at Pungo to finish the season — to give the Raiders a shot at the regular-season title.

The Raiders have more to worry about than chasing the top seed in the conference tournament, which begins May 2. They committed a pair of errors in their loss to the Knights, which made the difference in the contest.

“We hadn’t gone against (pitcher Tyler Hendrix) this year,” Raiders coach Joseph Hudnell said. His squad struggled to get the hits it needed to bring home runners in scoring position. Terra Ceia’s defense made exceptional plays to negate Pungo’s offense, too. The Knights ended the fourth by picking off Walter Gibbs at first. They got out of the fifth thanks to a double play. Catcher Quentin Van Essendelft also threw himself into the dugout fence chasing down a foul ball.

“He threw us off a little bit, but (the) guys know they’ve got to hit the ball,” Hudnell said. “We didn’t hit it.”

Against Lawrence, they were kept off balance by pitcher Jarrett Harrel. He threw a full seventh inning, scattering five hits for just one first-inning run. He didn’t walk any batters and fanned 10.

Those are going to be the two points of emphasis ahead of Tuesday’s rematch and season finale against Lawrence. The Raiders are hoping to bounce back with sharper play in the infield and more quality at bats so as to pick up some momentum heading into the postseason.

“(We’re focusing on) batting and the infield,” Hudnell said. “We just made errors. We need to be on top of the ball. We had soft bats (on Thursday). For the most part this year, we’ve batted pretty well.”

Pungo is averaging over 10 runs per game even after scoring just three in its last two outings. On the defensive end, the Raiders are conceding 2.36 runs a game. That said, the hope is that, with some work in practice, those games can be more isolated and less thematic of the end of the campaign.

“It’s been these last two games. It’s frustrating,” Hudnell said. “It’s a big concern. It doesn’t look good going into the tournament and trying to sweep the championship. But, we’re going to deal with it. We’re going to practice hard and get back to our game.”