Bulloch Academy christened in their newly renovated field Thursday as they host Trinity in a region matchup. The renovations saw plenty of holes filled in, but Thursday the Gators dug themselves a hole in the form of a 6-0 deficit, that they couldn’t dig themselves out of, and ended up falling 7-3.

The Gators mustered only three hits the entire game, but still managed to leave 10 runners on base. As for the Crusaders, they were able to get timely hitting with runners in scoring position, and held the Gator bats in check, keeping them hitless for the first four and two thirds innings.

“Defensively we took a step forward. Offensively we took a step back today,” said Bulloch Academy coach Kyle Chambers. “We have done this the past few games, waiting until the fourth or fifth inning to get the bats started. You are playing with nine outs, which makes things tough.”

The Gators got out of a jam in the first as with runners on second and third, shortstop Don Aaron ran across the bag at second to field a ground ball and fired to first for the third out.

The Gators then loaded the bases in the second on two walks and a hit batsman, but left the runners stranded.

Trinity started the scoring in the top of the third. Chase Autry hit a fly ball to the gap in right center for a double scoring David Coleman, and giving Trinity a 1-0 lead. Christian Kight would make it 2-0 as he singled home Autry.

The Crusaders erupted for four more runs in the fourth. Autry came through again with a bases loaded double, that brought in two runs to make the score 4-0. Two batters later with runners on second and third, Kight hit a two run double in the gap in right center to give Trinity a 6-0 lead.

The Gators were held hitless until the fifth inning. With two runners on Nate Rice hit a towering three run home run deep to left field to cut the lead in half at 6-3.

The Crusaders added an insurance run in the sixth, as with the bases loaded Chance Blum hit a fly ball to left center, Will Aaron made a diving catch, but Blake Purvis was able to tag up and score from third to make it 7-3.

The Gators added singles by Colin Davis and Hunter Marlowe, but stranded two more runners in the sixth and would fall by the final of 7-3.

“We have a bye week in our region next week and it comes at a good time,” Chambers said. “We are going to work on starting the game off being more aggressive. Hopefully we can get men on base, and try and get something going early on.”

The Gators fall to 3-2 overall and 0-2 in region play. Up next Bulloch Academy hosts Tattnall County Tuesday at 4 p.m.