CONCORD — In spite of Concord’s struggles this season, head coach Scott Owen’s never been disappointed with the effort from his group. That theme came up once again on Friday, when the Tide dropped a tight game against Goffstown, 3-2. 

Sophomore Alex Turant started on the mound for Concord and pitched 4.1 innings, allowing six hits, three runs (two earned), walking two and striking out three. Senior Mitch Coffey pitched the rest of the game in relief, covering 2.2 innings, allowing two hits, no runs, two walks and three strikeouts.

The Tide scored in the third inning when, with runners on first and third, Joey Mangone reached on an E5 and in the fifth after an RBI double from Coffey.

Here are three takeaways from Concord’s 10th loss of the season:

Tide offense can’t solve Grizzlies’ Cam Hujsak 

Hujsak struck out 10 hitters in his six innings of work, and six of the strikeouts were looking. His curveball, in particular, gave the Tide some trouble at the plate.

“He’s throwing a tight, hard curveball. We just couldn’t make an adjustment. We couldn’t pick it up, and that’s baseball,” Owen said. “We had plenty of opportunities. We didn’t get the big hit, but we pitched very well, we played very good defense ... but at the end of the day, it came down to our inability to adjust to his curveball and put the ball in play with runners in scoring position. That’s the difference in the game.”

Concord continuing to battle

The results haven’t necessarily been there, but the work ethic has, Owen emphasized. As such, he expects his group to work to adjust from Friday, especially at the plate.

“Probably going to dial up the pitching machine tomorrow on curveballs, and we’re just going to keep working,” Owen said. “It’s what we’ve done all year. We just gotta get better. We gotta get a little more experience. They’re working hard. They compete, and they work hard. They’re doing everything we ask them to do. We just gotta get better. And we are better. We’re better than at the beginning of the year. We just gotta translate that into wins.”

Playoff berth remains goal

At 5-10, Owen estimated his team probably needs to win at least two or three of its last five games to have a shot of qualifying for the playoffs. But if they can sneak in, he knows his team would have a shot.

“We gotta start pulling off some of these in order to get in the playoffs, but if we play like this in our last five games, I think we’re going to have a pretty good shot of getting in the playoffs, and then once you get in the playoffs, we all know, it’s anyone’s game,” he said. “But you gotta get in first, so we got some work to do. Like I said, kids have battled, and I can’t ask for anything more than what they’ve done.” 

Concord’s next game will be on Monday at home against Bishop Guertin.