By Brett Shweky/Sports Director
With the 2018 Conference USA Softball Championship around the corner, the league has announced the conference honors for the regular season. For the Panthers, the team led C-USA with the most players selected to the First Team, while also having a two others earn accolades.
Sophomore pitcher Shannon Saile, junior outfielder Jackie Schoff and senior first baseman Kasandra Castle were named First-Team All-CUSA, while sophomore shortstop Jessica Rivera earned Second-Team All-CUSA. Freshman second baseman Venessa Gallegos also received conference honors by making it to the All-CUSA Freshman team.
Saile appeared in 30 games for FIU and boasted a conference-leading 1.84 ERA. The sophomore ace even broke program history by setting the single-season record for strikeouts with 259. Her strikeout total tops the conference and ranks tenth nationally.
The Land O’Lakes, FL native was named C-USA Pitcher of the Week three times this season, which is tied for first in the league. One of her awards came after a dominant victory against the No. 4 University of Florida, where she shutout the Gators 5-0. Saile struck out nine opposing batters in that matchup, while also restricting them to only three hits.
“Anytime you go into Gainesville and get a win, it’s a good accomplishment,” said Panthers’ head coach Gator Rebhan. “That doesn’t happen often especially when you can shut them out.”
Schoff collected her third straight All-CUSA honor and her second straight All-Conference First Team selection. The junior outfielder is a top of the team in overall batting average with .361 and hit a stellar .400 in conference games this year. Schoff led the Panthers with 69 hits as well, which ranks 23rd nationally and second in C-USA.
Castle received All-Conference honors for the first time in her career and has been an instrumental part of the team’s regular season success. The senior leads the squad in home runs with eight, leads the team in slugging percentage with .484, and is tied for first in RBI with 37.
The first baseman has been a catalyst for the Panthers in conference play, as she ranks in the Top 10 in C-USA in batting average (.406), slugging (.652), on-base percentage (.449), hits (28), runs scored (19), RBI (18), total bases (45) and home runs (5).
Along with Castle, Rivera also received All-CUSA honors for the first time by being named to the Second Team as an infielder. The sophomore shortstop is fourth on the team in overall batting average with a .280, while hitting .349 against league opponents. The Miami, FL product managed to record 13 multiple-hit games and also accumulated seven multiple-RBI games.
Gallegos, in her first season in blue and gold, has proven to be one of the up and coming players in C-USA. The freshman second baseman led all freshmen on the team with 52 in-game appearances and is tied with Castle for the team high in RBI with 37 while ranking second on the team in home runs with 5.
The Panthers have earned a single game bye in the 2018 C-USA Championship tournament and will take on either No. 6 Middle Tennessee or No. 7 North Texas Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. at Sue M. Daughtridge Stadium in Charlotte, NC.
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