The King’s Fork High School baseball team hoped to maintain possession of the 7 p.m. time slot this week in the King’s Fork Spring Break baseball tournament, but Bulldog errors foiled that plan.

The evening time slot, which will showcase the tourney’s only undefeated teams on Friday in the championship game, featured the Bulldogs and Churchland High School on Tuesday. Neither team was ever out of the game, but the Truckers led most of the way, ending up with a 4-3 win.

“We really didn’t play to the best of our ability,” King’s Fork coach Pat Stafford said. Nevertheless, he added, “We were competitive the entire game as far as putting pressure on Churchland when we needed to.”

But the Bulldogs could not always translate that pressure into runs, and their defense ultimately failed to contain the Truckers.

“We committed six fielding errors, and Churchland only had one earned run the entire game,” Stafford said.

He noted the Truckers put pressure on the Bulldogs to make those errors.

“That’s something that we can’t let get to us,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Truckers committed only two errors.

Stafford said he expects the Truckers to be a contender for the Conference 17 championship this year.

On Tuesday, Churchland led 2-0 after the first inning. King’s Fork got a run in the second, tied things 2-2 in the fourth and took a brief 3-2 lead in the fifth.

Churchland got two runs in the bottom of the fifth. Then, senior Cal Bailey ended the inning with three strikeouts. He pitched the last one and two-thirds innings of defensive play for KF.

Stafford praised both of his pitchers who took the mound on Tuesday. Sophomore Tristen DeGuzman, who took the loss, pitched the first four and one-third innings and threw three strikeouts.

DeGuzman is still learning the varsity starting role he filled against Churchland, but Stafford indicated he has established himself as one of the first relievers the coaches go to.

Bailey, in his fourth year at the varsity level, is used as both a starter against King’s Fork’s top opponents and a clutch reliever in other cases.

Stafford said, “I could see Tristen, by the end of the year, starting to pitch against some good teams in some tight situations for us.”

Highlight performers on offense for the Bulldogs included junior Josh Bush, who led off the second inning with a big double, and sophomore Tim Gromkoski, who drove Bush in and went 1-for-2 with two walks for the game.

Others getting hits included Bailey and senior Bryce Jones.

King’s Fork has a big win over cross-city rival Nansemond River High School but five losses outside of that game this season. Moving forward, Stafford wants to see his players be consistent.

“If we play a complete game where we pitch good, we play fundamental baseball, we make all the plays we should make and we hit the ball — we have smart, good at-bats — we’ll be able to compete with any team in the area,” he said.

The Bulldogs (1-5) face Southampton High School at 10 a.m. today at King’s Fork.