MIAMI (May 6, 2017) -- Needing six-straight home wins to finish the season in order the capture a double-bye in the Conference USA Championships next week, that's exactly what FIU softball got after a 4-1 win over Louisiana Tech to complete the regular season Saturday at Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium.
 
The victory pushed the Panthers' record to 43-12 on the season, 17-6 in C-USA. The 17 league wins sets a new school record for C-USA wins in a season and sets a new record for conference win percentage (.739).  The win also pushes the Panther's total wins mark to within one of 2001's record of 44. FIU is now 8-0 all-time against the Lady Techsters.
 
"This team really wants to win," said Head Coach Gator Rebhan, who got his 100^th-career victory in game one of the series on Friday. "We made plays when we had to - we got the bunts down when we had to and got fly balls (for RBI) when we needed them these last two weeks."
 
Three of the four Panthers seniors got an RBI on Senior Day and freshman pitcher Shannon Saile (Land O'Lakes, Florida / Land O'Lakes HS) tossed her 21^st complete game of the year, allowing one earned run on three hits and four walk, finishing with nine strikeouts. 
 
LA Tech falls into third place with a mark of 33-21, 16-8 in C-USA. The Lady Techsters will earn a bye into the late games on Wednesday, but could be overtaken by Florida Atlantic if the Owls sweep their series at UTEP this weekend. 
 
LA Tech's run was the first of the game, and the first earned run against Saile in her last 45.2 innings pitched. A one-out double, followed by a two-out triple from leading hitter Morgan Turkoly drove in the run and the third lead of the weekend for the visitors.
 
The Panthers were able to tie the game in the bottom of the second. Senior Ashley Leon (Miami, Florida / Gulliver Prep HS) singled up the middle to lead off the inning. After LA Tech hit two of the next three batters, freshman shortstop Jessica Rivera (Miami, Florida / Gulliver Prep HS) hit a sacrifice fly to score Leon to right and tie the game at one.
 
A walk, a single and a sacrifice bunt to start the fifth put runners in scoring position for Leon, who lined her third single of the day off the outstretched glove of the first baseman to give FIU the lead. A sacrifice fly from senior Dani Mowry (Cocoa, Florida / Space Coast HS) put the Panthers up 3-1.
 
A leadoff triple by Rivera in the sixth turned into a 4-1 lead when senior third baseman Sammi Green (Marietta, Georgia) singled just inside of third base for the game's final scoring play.
 
Saile retired 10 in a row until the seventh, when a leadoff single and two-out walk put the tying run at the plate. Saile recorded three strikeouts in the inning to end the series with the sweep. She lowered her league-leading ERA to 1.46 and her league-leading and school-record opponent batting average to .140 after the win. She recorded two wins and a save in the weekend series, making her 7-0 with two saves in her last nine appearances, dropping her ERA by half a run. She has allowed just 14 hits in her last 50.1 innings pitched. 
 
Saile's 21 complete games are two away from the school record, while her nine strikeouts got her to 215, second all-time at FIU.
 
FIU's fourth senior, first baseman Stephanie Texeira (Miami, Florida / Gulliver Prep), was intentionally walked in the fifth after being hit by a pitch in the fourth, making her 0-for-1 on the day. She drove in both game-winning RBI in the doubleheader sweep on Friday when she hit three home runs in the two games, giving all four seniors an RBI in their final home series.
 
"The young players all respect these four seniors, they are all leaders in their own way," Rebhan added. "When our coaching staff gets on the young players and pushes them, the seniors will pick them up. We need this day off as hard as we have been fighting for this extra day. This league is very competitive and with as tight as it is, we needed to get the day off and into double-elimination."
 
The Panthers will await the final seeding as the remaining C-USA series finish this weekend. FIU will be the two seed and play next at 5:30 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, May 11. The winner of the 1 p.m. single-elimination game Wednesday between seeds five and eight will take on the three seed at 6 p.m. Wednesday evening. That winner will be FIU's opponent in the first day of double elimination. The other remaining team faces top-seeded Marshall at 5:30 Thursday. FIU is looking for its first C-USA Tournament victory. 
 
FIU won its last 10 home games and finished with a school-record 24 home victories (24-2), also setting the mark with a .923 home winning percentage. For the season, FIU set new team records with 186 total walks and 254 hits, the fewest allowed in a single season.

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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/.