MIAMI (May 5, 2017) – FIU senior first baseman
Stephanie Texeira (Miami, Florida / Gulliver Prep) tied a career high with two home runs as FIU swept visiting LA Tech after a 6-3 win in the nightcap of a Conference USA doubleheader Friday at Felsberg Field and FIU Softball Stadium.
FIU is 42-12 on the season, 16-6 in C-USA, breaking the school record for Conference USA wins in a season. LA Tech slips to 33-20 on the year, 16-7 in league games. The Panthers are now 8-0 against LA Tech in the all-time series, and FIU is 23-2 at home in 2017. FIU has won nine home contests in a row.
After hitting a two-run homer in the first game of the double dip, Texeira now has a career-high 14 home runs this season, third-most in C-USA, and leads the league with 50 RBI. She leads FIU with 46 career homers and 188 career RBI.
"We came in nice and loose and feel like the postseason started last week," said Texeira after the game. "We are playing with a chip on our shoulder right now, and playing for each other, and that's the key for us to be successful – believing in the next player. When I hit the last homer, everyone went crazy and even Coach Tat (
Tatiana Fernandez) picked me up… it was amazing. I can't even put it into words."
The sweep means Saturday's series finale will be for second-place in Conference USA, which affords the winner a double bye and automatic advancement into day two of next week's Conference USA Championships.
Freshman third baseman
Jocelin Soto (Oxnard, California) singled to center in the second inning to plate redshirt senior outfielder
Dani Mowry (Cocoa, Florida / Space Coast HS) from second for a 1-0 FIU lead.
The Lady Techsters took their first lead of the day on a two-out, two-run homer from Ali Galaz in the top of the fourth, but Texeira tied the game on the first pitch she saw with the solo homer in the bottom of the inning.
LA Tech got a one-out triple and a squeeze bunt scored their second go-ahead run of the day in the fifth.
With the Panthers trailing 3-2 in the sixth, leadoff hitter and sophomore outfielder
Jackie Schoff (Bradenton, Florida / Lakewood Ranch HS) hit her second single of the game to left center. Schoff went 4-for-6 for the day. Senior second baseman
Ashley Leon (Miami, Florida / Gulliver Prep HS), the conference's leader in sacrifice bunts, dropped a bunt that she beat out for an infield hit for Texeira, who homered off relief pitcher Jenny Chapman out to right on the first pitch of Chapman's night. Texeira set a new season high with the four RBI in the game.
Sophomore pitcher
Megan Kugelmann (Merritt Island, Florida / Cocoa Beach) tossed six strong innings, scattering five hits and one walk for the win to improve to 14-4. Freshman
Shannon Saile (Land O'Lakes, Florida / Land O'Lakes HS) entered the seventh with a runner on first and struck out the side to get her conference-leading fourth save of the season.
After holding LA Tech to a one-hit shutout in game one, Saile finished the day with 11 total strikeouts and moved into second all-time in a single season at FIU with 206 strikeouts in her freshman season. The reigning C-USA Pitcher of the Week also got a win and a save last Saturday to sweep WKU. She is 6-0 with two saves in her last eight appearances, with 53 strikeouts in 42.2 innings, allowing just 11 hits for an opponent batting average of .081 in that span. She leads the league with a 1.48 ERA and an opponent batting average of .140 this season.
LA Tech's Krystal De La Cruz took the loss, dropping her record to 10-2. The sophomore transfer allowed just six hits in five innings, but her baserunners scored after a pitching change on Texeira's second homer of the game.
Four Panthers recorded two hits each. Texeira now has six games with two home runs in her career. FIU is 9-0 when the team hits more than one home run in a game this season, and 21-0 when scoring five-or-more runs. FIU is 37-4 when the opponent scores three-or-fewer runs. After scoring a run on Texeira's homer in the sixth, Schoff now has 50 runs, one away from tying the school's single-season record. She has reached base safely in 42 of her 43 games played this season. She and Texeira are the only two players in program history with 40-or-more runs scored in two different seasons.
FIU will honor its seniors in a pregame ceremony prior to the noon series finale on Saturday.
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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/.
