SHREVEPORT, La. - The University of Dubuque baseball team closed out their three-game, opening weekend series in Louisiana on Saturday afternoon, where they would ultimately fall to the Centenary Gents 4-0. 

For the third time in the series a team broke into the scoring column in the first inning, this time Centenary came up with a two-out single that trickled through the right side to bring around two runs. The Gents offense had another two-out knock in the bottom of the second to put the Spartans in a 3-0 deficit.

Jake Cekander would give UD their first base runner of the game, leading off the top of the fourth off with a single to left center. Cekander would promptly steal second base but that was as far as he would make it after two ground outs and strike out. 

It took until the top of the sixth for the Spartans to get multiple men on base, when Parker Allen singled up the middle and both Jake Cekander and Kellen Mitchell walked to load up the bases with two outs. However, like the previous two games in the series, the Spartans had a hard time finding that timely hit and a deep fly out to right field ended the UD scoring chance.

After the bases loaded threat in the sixth, the Spartans would fail to get another base runner over the final three plate appearances and the Gents tacked on a fourth run in the bottom of the eighth for good measure to end the game with a 4-0 score.

UD was only able to come up with two hits on Saturday afternoon, both came from the one and two guys in the line-up in Parker Allen and Jake Cekander. Anthony Scanlon started on the mounded for the Spartans, scattering seven hits and three runs over six innings. 

Next up, the Spartans will head to St. Louis, Mo. for a three-game series over Mar. 13-14 at Washington University in St. Louis.