MIAMI (April 8, 2016) -- The FIU softball program will appear on national television this weekend when the Panthers host rival and No. 24 Florida Atlantic for a three-game series on Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium. The series starts with a Saturday doubleheader, beginning at 1 p.m. Fox Sports Net (FSN) will televise the first game of the twin bill, and the second game will start at 4 p.m. The series concludes with a 1 p.m. Sunday finale.
 
The first game of the doubleheader will air on a myriad of FSN channels, including Fox Sports Sun, which can be seen in most of the state of Florida. The game will air on seven other FSN networks, as well as MASN and Root Sports in both Pittsburgh and the Rocky Mountain region.

You can find FOX Sports Sun by many providers in the state of Florida (Ch. 423 – Dish Network; Ch. 654/655 – DirecTV; Ch. 720 – AT&T U-Verse; Ch. 39 – Comcast). Check your local listing for the FSN affiliate in your area, and for stations showing a replay on Sunday.
 
The Panthers are coming off a road sweep of North Texas, their first three-game conference sweep on the road since the final series of the 2014 season at Southern Miss. FIU is the league's top hitting team, checking in with a .331 team batting average through eight weeks of the regular season. The Panthers are also first in Conference USA in runs (203), hits (330), and on-base percentage (.400), while second in slugging percentage (.471), doubles (47) and RBI (167). FIU is tied for third in ERA (3.15) on the pitching side.
 
Sophomore shortstop A.J. Belans (Hollywood, Florida / American Heritage HS) is the reigning C-USA Player of the Week, after belting three home runs and driving in eight RBI at North Texas. She personally outscored the Mean Green in the series. The Panthers hit six homers, including a season-high four in the Sunday 12-3 win. Belans had one Saturday in the first game and two more in the Sunday win, missing a third when her double hit the top of the wall. It was her third two-homer game of the year. She trails junior Stephanie Texeira (Miami, Florida / Gulliver Prep) for the team lead. Texeira also hit a homer in the first game Saturday and in the Sunday finale in Denton, Texas. Texeira has 10 homers, with Belans belting seven this season. Texeira's 10 home runs are the ninth time a player has reached double digits in homers for a single season. She is one of three players to do it twice and needs four more to tie the school record of 33 for a career.
 
Saturday will mark the 102^nd career pitching start for senior Corinne Jenkins (Sarasota, Florida / Riverview), who is only the second player in team history with 100 starts. She is chasing down Amanda Nealer (2002-05), who started 109 games in her four-year career at FIU.
 
The Panthers have 26 wins versus teams in the Top 25, and a 3-10 mark in their last 13 games against ranked opponents, including 0-4 this season. The Panthers dropped a pair of games at then-No. 1 Florida in the first weekend of March, and lost both ends of a doubleheader against then-No. 20 Notre Dame in Miami on March 9. FIU's last win over a ranked opponent was a 3-1 victory over No. 19 Minnesota on March 2, 2014. FIU is 1-1 all-time against FAU when the Owls held a national ranking, splitting a doubleheader on April 21, 2000.
 
FIU and FAU have played 81 previous times, the most times played against any of the 200 opponents that the Panthers have played in their 1,124-game history. FIU is 14-20 at home against the Owls, but the Panthers defeated FAU twice in a three-game series in Boca Raton last March.
 
 
FAU leads the league in earned run average (1.25), opponent batting average (.166), strikeouts (264), hits allowed (150), runs allowed (56) and walks allowed (51). The Owls feature three-time C-USA Pitcher of the Week Kylee Hanson. The league leader in opposing batting average (.129), earned run average (0.75) and shutouts (9), the junior tossed her league-leading 14^th complete game and ninth shutout in a 6-0 shutout victory over Louisiana Tech last Saturday. She is 1-1 versus FIU in her career. The Panthers' lone loss in the series last season was against Hanson, who allowed seven hits and two walks in a 5-1 result. She struck out 15 batters, the most strikeouts suffered by the Panthers last year. Hanson lost to FIU in 2014 as a freshman, allowing an earned run on eight hits and two walks in a 3-2 loss on April 5 of that season.
 
Offensively, the Owls are led by the Martinez sisters, Christina and Melissa, who played for FIU coach Gator Rebhan as youngsters on his local travel teams. Christina leads the Owls with a .365 batting average, which ranks ninth in C-USA and Melissa paces the squad with 12 doubles, second-most in the league this season, while her seven strikeouts are the lowest among everyday Owls players.
 
The Panthers will head out on the road for the following three weeks, returning home for the last home series of the year, against Middle Tennessee on May 7 and 8.

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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/.