MIAMI (Feb. 27, 2015) – The FIU softball team (12-7) split on the opening day of the Felsberg Invitational on Friday. In their first contest of the day, the Panthers fell to the Ole Miss Rebels, 5-0, before rebounding and defeating the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats in six innings, 11-3.
 
Game One: Ole Miss 5, FIU 0
Junior Corinne Jenkins (6-5) got tagged with the complete-game, five hit loss. She held Ole Miss to just three walks and fanned five, including three-straight in the third inning.
 
FIU looked to be in good position in the first inning after senior Rebekah Sanchez singled to lead off, but the Panthers would be held without a run. After being granted second off an illegal pitch by Ole Miss' Emily Gaitan, sophomore Ashley Leon moved Sanchez over to third base, but the Rebels were able to get out of the inning unscathed after getting FIU's next two batters to ground out.
 
Ole Miss capitalized off a throwing error in the top of the second to take an early 3-0 lead, but Jenkins was able to leave a runner on second stranded and ended the frame with her second punch out of the day. She upped that total to five after the top of the third, where Jenkins was dealing and rang up the side looking.
 
Freshman Ashley Belans sparked a sluggish Panthers' offense that put up just one hit through four innings with her two-out single in the fifth, which was roped past the diving short stop. Sanchez followed with a sharply-hit ball down the line in left to put two on for Leon. After working the count full, she took the walk and loaded the bases for sophomore Stephanie Texeira. Texeira made good contact, but the third baseman handled it for the unassisted putout at third.
 
Ole Miss was able to tack on two more insurance runs in the top of the seventh for the 5-0 final.
 
Game Two: FIU 11, Bethune-Cookman 3
Senior Shelby Graves (4-2) picked up her fourth-straight win, posting four strikeouts in just over five innings.
 
Freshman Erin Eiland earned her first career start and anchored down the Panthers' right field spot.
 
Graves retired the side in the first inning before fanning two in the second, keeping the ballgame scoreless through after two innings. She picked up her third strikeout to strand one Wildcat base runner in the third.
 
FIU was able to push across the game's first run in the bottom of the frame. With two outs, a speedy Leon reached base on an infield single to the left side. She stole her team-leading fifth bag before being drive home by Texeira's RBI single to left field.
 
The Wilcats put two on with no outs to open the next half inning, but a swift 6-4-3 groundout quickly eliminated any chance Bethune-Cookman had. The Panthers tacked on an insurance run for Graves in the bottom half of the inning. Junior Aleima Lopez had a long single down the line in left, but pinch runner Dominique Grossman was caught stealing after entering the game. Belans doubled off the wall to follow Lopez' hit and stood on third following a walk to freshman Michaela Mills. With Mills heading to second, the throw by the BC-U's Geena Capitini found its way to the outfield, plating Belans. Leon then picked up her second infield single of the night, which brought home FIU's third run of the night.
 
FIU put two on the base paths in the fifth, and capitalized on two errors on one play, which pushed across FIU's fourth and fifth runs of the game. BC-U tagged FIU for its first run in the top of the sixth after taking advantage of two walks to open the frame.
 
Spallone added to her home run list in the sixth inning, sending a three-run, one-out bomb over the wall in right. Redshirt sophomore Marisa McGregor tallied the first multi-RBI game of her season with a two-out single to center.
 
FIU plays a pair tomorrow as it continues the Felsberg Invitational at 4 p.m. against Michigan State.
 
Fans are encouraged to follow the Panthers on Twitter (@FIUSoftball) and become a fan on Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUSoftball) for all the latest FIU Softball news. Follow all of FIU's 18 athletic teams on Google+ (FIU Athletics), Twitter (@FIUAthletics), Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUSports), YouTube (FIUPanthers), and Instagram (FIUathletics)
 
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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports, and is a proud member of Conference USA. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and the FIU Football Stadium.
 
About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers more than 180 bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes $9.8 billion each year to the local economy. 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. FIU has awarded over 200,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has over 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.