MIAMI (April 29, 2017) -- FIU freshman pitcher Shannon Saile (Land O'Lakes, Florida / Land O'Lakes HS) set a personal record with 14 strikeouts and tossed a complete-game, one-hit shutout, 3-0, of visiting WKU to start a C-USA softball doubleheader Saturday at Felsberg Field ad FIU Softball Stadium.
 
FIU improved to 38-12 after the win, 12-6 in Conference USA. WKU dropped to 26-24, 10-11 in C-USA.

Saile tied the league-high total for punchouts in a single game, the fourth 14-strikeout game by a C-USA pitcher this season.
 
Saile needed one big hit, and she got it in the fifth inning, when redshirt senior Dani Mowry (Cocoa, Florida / Space Coast HS) blasted the first pitch she saw in the fifth inning over the fence in left center for a three-run homer, her career-best sixth of the year. The Panthers had reached on an error and a walk with one out for Mowry, who had the only RBI of the game.
 
The Panthers collected five hits in the game, enough to outlast the Lady Tops, who got a bunt single halfway between the plate and the pitching circle for their only hit. That runner was thrown out trying to steal second.
 
Saile was nearly perfect, hitting one batter in the first and giving up the bunt single in the fourth. She faced one more than the minimum for her seventh shutout of the season and 18^th complete game of her first collegiate campaign. Saile went from 10^th to sixth in program history for total strikeouts in a season, at 184. It was the seventh time she pushed her strikeout total into double digits.
 
The Panthers now have 12 shutouts and are the first C-USA program to amass 300 strikeouts for the season.

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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including Lime Court at FIU Arena and at Riccardo Silva Stadium.
 
About FIU: Florida International University is classified by Carnegie as a "R1: Doctoral Universities - Highest Research Activity" and recognized as a Carnegie Community Engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as business, engineering, computer science, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes almost $9 billion each year to the local economy and is ranked second in Florida in Forbes Magazine's "America's Best Employers" list. FIU graduates are consistently among the highest paid college graduates in Florida and are among the leaders of public and private organizations throughout South Florida. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission with multiple state-of-the-art research facilities including the Wall of Wind Research and Testing Facility, FIU's Medina Aquarius Program and the Advanced Materials Engineering Research Institute.  FIU has awarded more than 220,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, the Miami Beach Urban Studios, and Tianjin, China. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.