The Greyhounds had their chances, but ultimately fell short 6-5 to the Vee Pak Hawks of Chicago in the opening round of pool play at the SpamTown Challenge in Marcusen Park Thursday.

The Hounds (4-9 overall) trailed 6-3 going into the seventh, but after threy drew three walks, Craig Braaten slapped a run-scoring single to right field. Then Tyler Leopold struck out and Matt Raso drew a bases loaded walk to make it a one-run game with two outs.

That’s when Hawks reliever Dan Sorensen struck out Tim Kaplan to end the contest.

“We got some breaks, we just couldn’t take advantage of them,” Hounds manager John Frein said.

The Hawks made some big defensive plays to get the win. In the seventh, they made a great catch on a line drive by Dan Wiechmann for the first out of that inning.

“Wiechmann hit that ball pretty well. If that falls in somewhere maybe we get a rally going right away,” Frein said.

In the sixth inning Austin had runners on first and second with no outs when Hawks third baseman John O’Brien made a diving stop on a sharp hit by Kaplan. O’Brien tagged third for the force out and threw Kaplan out at first for a double play.

“That was a really nice play. They made a lot of nice plays in the infield and the outfield,” Frein said.

The Hounds jumped out to a 2-0 lead early after Braaten had an RBI double in the first and Nick Bowe scored after doubling in the second.

But a couple of Austin errors allowed the Hawks to stay close.

“It’s the beginning of the game where we screwed up and gave up our momentum,” Frein said. “We just didn’t make some plays we should’ve made. We play defense and we win the game.”

Austin gave up the lead for good in the fifth, when the Hawks rattled off four straight hits to score four in the frame and take a 6-3 lead.

The Hounds will continue pool play on Friday when they play St. Michaels at 7 p.m. in Marcusen Park.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E

Greyhounds 1 1 0 1 0 0 2 5 7 4

Hawks 0 0 1 1 4 0 X 6 10 1

Greyhounds pitching: Jamie Boelter (L), 4 1/3 IP, 9 H, 2 BB, 6 R, 4 ER, 1 K; Matt Raso, 1 2/3 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 0 R, 2 K

Greyhounds hitting: Andy Behnke, 0-for-3; Nick Rohne, 1-for-3, R, BB; Craig Braaten, 2-for-4, double, 2 RBIs; Tyler Leopold, 0-for-4; Dan Zielke, 1-for-1, BB; Tim Kaplan, 0-for-3; Nick Bowe, 1-for-3, double, R; Mitch Mullenbach, 2-for-2, RBI, R, BB; John Frein, 0-for-2; Raso, BB, RBI; Matt Cano, BB, R

Hawks pitching: Kevin Jakubauskas (W), 6 1/3 IP, 6 H, 2 BB, 4 ER, HBP, 1 K; Dan Sorensen (S), 2/3 IP, 1 H, 3 BB, 1 ER, 2 K

Hawks hitting: Chris Jenkins, 2-for-3, BB; Dave Schwave, 0-for-3, BB; John O’Brien, 2-for-4, double; Kevin Smith, 0-for-3, RBI; Jesse Griswold, 1-for-3, BB; Alex Beckmann, 1-for-4, RBI; Josh Zenawick, 2-for-3, double, RBI; Zach Deutscher, 1-for-3, RBI; Matt Milroy, 1-for-3, triple, RBI