Richardson, TX-The Castleton State College baseball team opened its season with a pair of loses at the University of Texas-Dallas. The Spartans fell 9-1 in the opener and 3-0 in the night cap.

Game 1: Billy Bruneau took the loss for Castleton in the opener, allowing two earned runs on four hits and three walks, while striking out three. The Spartans took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning, but were shut down the rest of the way. Kyle Brooks led off the inning with a double down the left field line. A botched pick-off attempt moved Brooks to third, and he would later score on a wild pitch. Lauck Blake then reached on a bunt single and stole second but Castleton could not plate him.

UT-Dallas plated a pair of runs in the bottom half of the third inning, five more in the fourth, including a grand slam homerun, and two in the sixth to earn the win.

Game 2: In the night cap the Castleton bats were stymied and could only muster three hits. Spartan starter, Billy O'Donnell pitched two shut-out innings before giving way to Ken Cook. Cook allowed three runs, all of them earned, on five hits and two walks in taking the loss. Freshman, Mitch Thresherpitched the final two innings without allowing a hit and struck out a pair.

Castleton's best opportunity to score was in the third inning when Anthony DiPietrantonio and Kevin McPeek led off the inning with back-to-back walks. Lauck Blake sacrificed the runners to second and third with just the one out. A ground ball back to the pitcher caught DiPietrantonio off the base at third and he was thrown out. Dan Conley hit an infield single to load the bases before Thresher struck out to end the threat.

The Spartans are off until Friday afternoon when they travel to the University of Dallas for a 3:00 pm nine inning affair.