MIAMI (April 29, 2016) -- FIU concludes its 11-game road swing with an important three-game Conference USA softball series this weekend at Marshall. The series begins with a Saturday doubleheader, which has been moved up to noon, and concluding with a noon finale on Sunday.
 
The Panthers and Thundering Herd are fighting for berths into the Conference USA tournament, which has two weeks of competition preceding it. Marshall and FIU, both C-USA East Division foes, will stay in division these last two weeks of the regular season.
 
FIU enters the weekend at 25-24 overall, with an 8-10 conference record. The Panthers are currently one game out from the last tournament spot in the standings. Marshall is 25-23, second in the East at 9-9. Depending on the outcome of the WKU at Florida Atlantic series, the Panthers could snatch the second spot from Marshall with a sweep in West Virginia. The top three teams in the six-team East are guaranteed spots in the tournament, with two more berths awarded to the best two records among the six teams not gaining divisional berths.
 
This series pits the league's top two hitting teams against one another. FIU leads the league with a .318 batting average, with Marshall immediately behind with a .315 average. The Panthers are the only team with 400 hits as a team to this point of the season (411). Marshall leads the conference with 130 stolen bases, fourth-most in the country and more than double all but two other teams in the league.
 
The Panthers come off a series win at Florida Golf Coast last weekend. Senior pitcher Corinne Jenkins (Sarasota, Florida / Riverview HS) had her finest performance of the season in game two of the Saturday doubleheader, tossing a three-hit shutout over the Eagles. She was perfect through five innings, allowing a leadoff hit in the sixth and two more in the seventh. It was her first start without allowing a run or a walk for the year. She tied her second best strikeout total of the year, punching out six. She is the first FIU pitcher to get over 100 innings for the year.
 
Despite missing 15 games (about one-third of the season) due to injury earlier this season, junior Stephanie Texeira (Miami, Florida / Gulliver Prep) is tied for the league lead with 12 home runs and sits third with 40 RBI, both team-leading totals for the Panthers. Her .426 batting average would be second in the league if she had the minimum games to qualify. She is one of only two players in Conference USA with more than 100 defensive chances without an error in the field.
 
The Panthers have used early scoring to get leads and keep them to victory. In their 25 wins, the Panthers are averaging more than one run scored in each of the first three innings, while allowing less than a run per game combined in that time. For the season, the Panthers are outscoring opponents 39-13 in the second inning, including a 19-2 margin in 18 conference games.
 
This weekend series represents the last of a six-game home stand for Marshall, and the Herd's final home games of 2016. After getting swept by Florida Atlantic two weeks ago, the Herd won all three contests versus Middle Tennessee last weekend to get back into the mix for the C-USA Championships. Marshall outscored the Raiders 23-2 in the weekend sweep. Marshall's Kaelynn Greene leads the league with a .467 average. She is the first C-USA player to collect 70 hits for the season. She also leads the league with 45 stolen bases, which is tied for the third-most in the country. Marshall junior pitcher Jordan Dixon tossed all 19 innings last weekend to earn Co-Pitcher of the Week for the league. She struck out 30 batters and allowed just nine hits and three walks, with one earned run. Her 20 total wins leads the league, while her 2.74 earned run average is seventh-best. She has all nine of Marshall's conference victories, pitching in all but one of the Herd's 18 league games.

The Panthers will return home for the final games of the regular season, hosting Middle Tennessee for a weekend conference series. The three-game set starts with a Saturday 4 p.m. doubleheader from Felsberg Field at the FIU Softball Stadium. 


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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/.