EL PASO, Texas (April 11, 2015) — The FIU softball team (26-19, 7-10 C-USA) dropped a pair of games in El Paso on Saturday evening, including an extra-inning contest in the night cap.
 
UTEP 3, FIU 2
Senior Shelby Graves picked up a no-decision after going the first 3.2 innings. She turned the game over to sophomore Brianna Bartuccio (3-1) in the fourth inning; as Bartuccio went on to pitch a strong final 2.1 innings despite suffering her first loss in an FIU uniform. She held the Miners to just two hits in the effort.
 
Sophomore Ashley Leon led off the game with a bunt single and advanced to second on a ground out. With one away, sophomore Gabby Spallone's fielder's choice to short stop had Leon running and the throw to third reached the Panthers' dugout, allowing the Miami native to score on the play.
 
Graves worked a 1-2-3 first inning and faced minimal trouble in the second inning. Following a leadoff single, sophomore Stephanie Texeira charged a slow-roller to get the runner at first base. Graves stranded one Miner at second base with two fly outs. UTEP came back in the third inning to give Graves some trouble, as three-straight one-out singles loaded the bases full of Miners. A sacrifice fly tied the game at 1-1, but Graves forced a fly out to senior Rebekah Sanchez in left field to keep the damage to one run.
 
A one-out double by the Miners gave UTEP the chance for the go-ahead run in the fourth inning and after a walk, sophomore Brianna Bartuccio came into the game in relief for Graves. She ended inning with a groundout to senior Krystal Garcia at third base. UTEP took its first lead of the game in the fifth inning off a two-run home run but a 6-4-3 double play quickly halted any momentum.
 
A two-out double by Garcia in the sixth inning sparked a Panthers' offense that struggled to reach base in three-straight inning. She came around to score on junior Aleima Lopez' hard-hit ball that kicked off the short stop's leg and rolled into center field.
 
UTEP 11, FIU 10 (8)
In her 80^th-career start in a Panthers' uniform, junior Corinne Jenkins lasted 1.2 innings before turning the game over to Bartuccio, who went the next two full innings. Freshman Rachel Dwyer came into the game with two outs in the fourth inning and tossed the final four innings and was tagged with the loss.
 
Leon led off the game with a hard-hit single through the middle and Texeira worked the count in her favor for a free pass. With two on for Spallone, the Panther center fielder reached safely on a fielder's choice, but an error on the UTEP short stop resulted in Leon coming around to score. The Miners tested Jenkins immediately in the bottom of the first, as the first three batters reached base safely. After Garcia got the lead runner at home for the inning's first out, a two-run home run by Kawehiokalani Netane put UTEP ahead, 2-1. Jenkins settled down and retired the side following that hit.
 
FIU rallied back in the second inning for two runs. Freshman Erin Eiland roped a one-out single to left field and advanced 60 feet on Sanchez' sacrifice hit. Leon slapped one back up the middle to bring Eiland across, and Leon then scored on Texeira's RBI single. Spallone doubled in the frame, adding to her league lead with 14, but she was left stranded. The Miners fought back to retake the lead in the bottom of the inning, as a double by Ashley Eldridge brought two runs across. Bartuccio came into the game with two on and picked up the final out of the second.
 
The Panthers found the answer in the top of the third and tied the game at 4-4, as Lopez led off with a single to the outfield and was pinch ran for by redshirt sophomore Marisa McGregor. After a sacrifice hit by Graves to advance her, a two-base error on freshman Ashley Belans' ball hit into play scored Eiland from second base. UTEP pulled ahead in the bottom of the inning with a solo home run by Linda Garcia.
 
The Miners broke the game open in the fourth inning and plated five runs to take a 10-4 lead and force the Panthers second pitching change of the game.
 
FIU didn't go down easy, as the Panthers woke their bats up in the fifth inning to put up a five-spot of their own. Two errors in the inning led to the Panthers' first two runs of the frame, while a two-RBI single by Spallone put the game back within reach at 10-8. Texeira scored on the third error of the inning to send the game into the sixth with a 10-9 score.
 
UTEP set up a tricky situation in the bottom of the fifth with the bases loaded and one out. Leon snagged a lineout at second base and tried to turn two, but the runner at first got back just under the tag. Dwyer then forced a fly out to Eiland in right field to end the inning. Dwyer then shut down UTEP 1-2-3 in the sixth inning to send FIU into its last chance at the plate facing a one-run deficit.
 
Texeira took four-straight balls to open the seventh and was pinch run for by freshman Jessica Hallett She went first-to-third on Spallone's single to center field. Lopez capped off a 4-for-5 day at the plate with a single to drive in Hallett, which tied the game at 10-10. Dwyer picked up her second-straight 1-2-3 inning in the seventh, which was highlighted by Leon's diving catch to steal a single away on the play.
 
The Miners found the game-winner on a single through the middle in the bottom of the eighth.
 
The series closes tomorrow with a first pitch time slated for noon ET.
 
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/.