MIAMI (March 14, 2017) -- Riding a season-best, eight-game winning streak, FIU Softball will host its first midweek contest at home before the Conference USA schedule begins, with a Wednesday night game against Fairfield, beginning at 7 p.m. from Felsberg Field at the FIU Softball Stadium. The Panthers and Stags met for a doubleheader on Saturday, with the Panthers sweeping in a pair of five-inning finals, 10-2 and 8-0.
FIU sits at 22-6, the highest win total through 28 games in program history. They were listed in the "Others Receiving Votes" category in this week's USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Coaches Poll this week.
 
During the eight-game win streak, the Panthers have four players with a batting average higher than .400, led by senior Stephanie Texeira (Miami, Florida / Gulliver Prep), who batted .455 (10-for-22) and drew four walks, in that stretch. She slugged at a .955 clip and had an on-base percentage of .586 in the eight-game stretch. She tied for the team lead with three homers and two doubles during the run. Her 11 runs scored are tops on the team in the win streak. Freshman Jessica Rivera (Miami, Florida / Gulliver Prep) drove in a team-best 11 runs, tying with Texeira with three home runs, which included a grand slam in the first Fairfield game last Saturday.
 
Reigning Conference USA Pitcher of the Week Shannon Saile (Land O'Lakes, Florida / Land O'Lakes HS) won five games in the win streak, striking out 34 hitters in 26.2 innings pitched, which included three complete games, in two of which she allowed just one hit in the complete-game effort. She has not allowed a run in her last 8.2 innings pitched, allowing just one baserunner in that stretch. Saile has 105 strikeouts for the season, 15^th-most in the nation and third-most in C-USA and is one strikeout away from the most for a Panther since 2012. Sophomore Abby Summers (Weston, Missouri) allowed just one earned run during the FIU win streak and leads the team with a 0.62 ERA in that span of two starts and three appearances.
 
The Panthers lead C-USA with a 1.85 ERA, 179 strikeouts and 22 wins. FIU is also the top defensive team, with a .978 fielding percentage and 14 double plays turned.
 
Fairfield shut out Rutgers Monday, 3-0, up in Boca Raton, Florida, and will play Fordham on Tuesday afternoon at 2:30 before resuming a suspended game with Florida Atlantic in the evening. Wednesday's game at FIU wraps up a five-day, seven-game swing, which will be followed by five more games in Tampa over the weekend before the team returns home to Connecticut.
 
Prior to Tuesday's action, the Stags are led offensively by Amanda Ulzheimer and her .529 average. Her batting average, 18 hits and 10 runs all lead Fairfield through 13 games play for the season. Pitcher Destinee Pallotto got her second shutout of the season Sunday against Fordham to improve to 3-2.
 
The Panthers will host North Texas to begin C-USA play starting with a Saturday doubleheader at 4 p.m.

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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/.