MIAMI (March 31, 2017) -- The FIU Panthers will enter the heart of their Conference USA softball schedule, with the East Division's third-place team and arch rival Florida Atlantic next on the docket. The Panthers have a three-game series scheduled for the FAU Softball Stadium in Boca Raton this weekend. The series begins with a Saturday doubleheader at 4 p.m. and a Sunday 1 p.m. finale.
 
The Panthers and Owls have played 84 games in the series, more than any other opponent, with FAU taking a 52-32 edge. With nine more games in the series taking place on the road than at home, FIU has six more wins in the series on the road, registering a 19-26 mark at FAU. The Panthers have won two of three in the series in each of the last two trips to Boca Raton.
 
The two teams are right beside one another in the latest NCAA ratings percentage index (RPI) report, released Monday. This index of all 291 softball programs eligible for postseason play, is provided to teams and the NCAA Selection Committee as an aid to select at-large teams into the NCAA Softball Championships. FAU is 45, and FIU is 46 in Monday's report. Only Marshall (29) is rated higher in Conference USA. Marshall makes the trip to FIU in two weeks and hosts FAU next weekend in a round-robin showdown of the East's three best teams. FIU is the only C-USA team ranked in the D1SoftballNews Top 25 and is the only league member receiving votes in both the USA Today/NFCA Coaches and ESPN.com/USA Softball Media polls.
 
FIU is 30-6, the fastest rate to 30 games in program history, and the Panthers have won a school-record 16 games in a row, including sweeps in their first two C-USA series to begin at 6-0. FIU has the league's best pitching (1.60 ERA) and defense (.977 fielding percentage). The Panthers rank 16^th and 11^th in the country in those two categories.
 
The reigning C-USA Pitcher of the Week, and two-time winner of the award, freshman Shannon Saile (Land O'Lakes, Florida / Land O'Lakes HS), leads the league by allowing 3.75 hits per game, 13^th-best in the nation, and leads the league with five shutouts, 14^th-best in the country as of Monday. She is one of three players in Conference USA to repeat as either Pitcher or Player of the Week this season. She leads the league with a .157 batting average against, is second with 33 strikeouts looking and sits third in total strikeouts. Saile already has the 15^th-most strikeouts in a single season at FIU, with 131, and more than any other FIU pitcher since 2012, and her strikeouts-per-seven-innings rate, at 8.93, is second-highest in program history for a single season. She is tied for the team lead with 10 wins.
 
Florida Atlantic sits at 22-11 overall, 5-1 in Conference USA play, with a loss to Charlotte last weekend the only blemish on the league tally. The Owls are second only to FIU in pitching (1.93 ERA), but in the middle of the pack in hitting (.271 batting average for seventh, while FIU is third at .306) and fifth in defense, with a fielding percentage of .960.
 
FAU senior All-American pitcher Kylee Hanson leads the league with a 0.91 ERA, and is second with an opponent batting average of .162. She has not appeared in a game for the Owls since February 25. The innings leader for FAU is Amanda Wilson, who is third on the team with a 2.12 ERA, 39 strikeouts and 27 walks in 85.2 innings of work so far.
 
Emily Lochten is the offensive leader of this bunch, with 13 home runs, a slugging percentage of .888 and 27 walks already this season.
 
Live video and stats links are posted at FIUSports.com and fans can also follow live updates on Twitter by clicking to twitter.com/FIUSoftball.

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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and at the FIU Football Stadium.
 
About FIU: Florida International University is classified by Carnegie as a "R1: Doctoral Universities - Highest Research Activity" and recognized as a Carnegie Community Engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as business, engineering, computer science, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes almost $9 billion each year to the local economy and is ranked second in Florida in Forbes Magazine's "America's Best Employers" list. FIU graduates are consistently among the highest paid college graduates in Florida and are among the leaders of public and private organizations throughout South Florida. 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 with multiple state-of-the-art research facilities including the Wall of Wind Research and Testing Facility, FIU's Medina Aquarius Program and the Advanced Materials Engineering Research Institute.  FIU has awarded more than 220,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, the Miami Beach Urban Studios, and Tianjin, China. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.