The Austin Greyhounds are still looking for their first Section win of the summer after they lost 6-3 to the Mankato Mets in Marcusen Park Friday night.

The Hounds (10-12 overall, 0-3 Section) led 2-0 early on as Gabe Kasak had a sacrifice fly and Jordan Hart doubled in a run. The Mets scored three runs in the third and Mankato tacked on three more runs in the seventh to take over.

Joe Huffman struck out 12 in nine innings of work.

“We don’t have a our whole lineup, but we battled. We’re struggling as a whole team. After the fourth of July we haven’t really put a lot together as far as a whole game goes,” Hounds manager Matt Cano said. “Joe pitched well and Gabe and Jordan hit the ball well. There were some bright spots.”

The Hounds had a few players playing through injuries on Friday and the team was without long-time Hound Matt Raso, who recently retired.

Austin still has six Section games remaining and Cano is hoping the team can make them count.

“We still want to play for those top two spots to get a home game at least,” he said. “We won a state tournament going below .500 in 2003. It’s just a matter of getting rid of a couple of base running mistakes and a few of those little things. We just need to play a little bit cleaner and we need to cut down on strikeouts. I expect us to turn it around and compete.”

Mets 0 0 0 3 0 0 3 0 0 — 6 7 6

Hounds 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 — 3 9 3

Hounds pitching: Joe Huffman (L) 9 IP, 7 H, 1 BB, 6 R, 5 ER, 12 K

Hounds hitting: Joe Kroc, 2-for-4, double, RBI; Andy Swank, 1-for-3; Tyler Leopold, 1-for-4; Matt Cano, 0-for-4; Josh Evans, 1-for-3, R; Nels Nelson, 0-for-4, R; Jeremy Williams, 0-for-4; Gabe Kasak, 2-for-4, RBI, R; Jordan Hart, 2-for-4, double, RBI