MIAMI (May 4, 2017) -- FIU softball will play its most important series of the season when the Panthers host LA Tech Friday and Saturday to complete the 2017 regular season at Felsberg Field and the FIU Softball Stadium. The Conference USA series pits the teams currently sitting second and third in the standings. Friday's doubleheader begins at 2 p.m., while Saturday's finale starts at noon. Prior to the noon contest Saturday, the Panthers will honor their four seniors playing in their final home game of the season.
 
At stake is the second seed in the upcoming Conference USA Championships, held next week in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The significance of the number-two seed is that the top two seeds in the C-USA Championships obtain a double bye and advance directly to the double-elimination portion of the tournament, skipping past day one, where four of six teams playing will be sent home in single-elimination play.
 
FIU enters the weekend with a 40-12 record, 14-6 in C-USA. The Panthers are second in the East division, 3.5 games behind division-leading Marshall. LA Tech leads the West division with a 16-5 record, while 33-18 overall. FIU needs to sweep the series to overtake the Lady Techsters for the second seed. An LA Tech sweep would give the Lady Techsters a chance to catch Marshall for the regular-season title, but securing the two-seed with one win is the priority to avoid the single-game elimination first day in Mississippi.
 
LA Tech cannot finish lowed than three and FIU cannot finish lower than four, as Florida Atlantic (33-18, 13-8 C-USA) can pass FIU for the three seed, but cannot make it to the double bye.
 
The Panthers are 21-2 at home in 2017, riding a seven-game home winning streak. FIU leads the league in defense (fielding .974), ERA (1.82, 21^st in the NCAA), batting average against (.203) strikeouts (319) and saves (8) and are the only team in C-USA with 40 wins. The 40-win plateau has only been achieved one other time in program history, when the Panthers finished 44-22 in 2001. This year's Panther squad is on pace to set a new program record for win percentage (currently at .769), ahead of the .667 mark set in 2001.
 
Individually, FIU freshman pitcher Shannon Saile (Land O'Lakes, Florida / Land O'Lakes HS) leads the league in ERA (1.55), batting average against (.145), hits allowed per seven innings (3.36, 5^th in the NCAA) and tied for saves (3). She is 5-0 with one save in her last six appearances, holding opponents to an 0.90 batting average. The three-time and current C-USA Pitcher of the Week got two wins in a save last weekend, holding WKU to a .090 batting average. In 15.2 innings in three games, she struck out 25 batters, holding the Lady Toppers to a one-hit shutout in game one and two hits in the series finale.
 
Offensively, sophomore center fielder Jackie Schoff (Bradenton, Florida / Lakewood Ranch HS) leads FIU and is second in C-USA with a .448 batting average (11^th in NCAA), while tied for the league lead with 48 runs. She has missed 10 games this season, putting her seventh in the NCAA in runs scored per game (1.14), while third in C-USA with a .523 on-base percentage. FIU is sixth in team batting (.289), while second in RBI (212) and runs scored (262) and third in hits (385).
 
The Lady Techsters are second in team batting (.296), slugging (.437) and first in on-base (.392), RBI (251) and runs (281). They are third in batting average against (.244) and fourth in ERA (2.31). LA Tech swept North Texas last weekend as the Lady Techsters closed out the home portion of the schedule. LA Tech lost two of three on the road at UTSA the weekend before, and have lost three of its last four road games. The Lady Techsters have won 10 of their last 12 C-USA weekend series, dating back to last season. They have not been swept in a series since the beginning of the 2016 league schedule in a 3-0 sweep at UTEP.
 
Individually, the Lady Techsters have two players tied for sixth in the league in scoring, as Jazlyn Crowder and Tori Charters have 42 runs each. Taria Page is tied for fourth in the league with 38 RBI. In the circle, LA Tech's Krystal De La Cruz is third in C-USA with a 1.71 ERA, while teammate Bailey Allen is sixth at 1.97 and teammate Preslee Gallaway is tied for fifth in wins with 14.
 
All three games will be streamed on PantherVision and available on CUSA.tv, while live stats links are available at FIUSports.com.

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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 Lime Court at FIU Arena and at Riccardo Silva 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/.