For the first time since 2005, the University of Dubuque baseball team clinched a spot in the six-team Iowa Conference tournament. Unfortunately for Central fans, it came via a four-game sweep of the Dutch, which sends them to the brink of not making the postseason tournament for the first time since 2009. Central fell 6 – 0 and 5 – 3, as the Spartans’ starting pitchers looked sharp all weekend. The Dutch scrapped together just two hits in their shutout loss in game one, but had eight in the game two loss; half of those came in the final two innings where they scored their three runs. Only seven Central runners touched home in their series against Dubuque, which dropped their record to 8 – 28 overall and 5 – 19 in Iowa Conference play. The Dutch are four games behind sixth-place Simpson with only a four game series with Loras left to go. They will begin that set this Friday in Dubuque at 1:00 p.m.