Box Score 

DENTON, Texas – FIU braced frigid temperatures and took advantage of three North Texas errors to win the first of a three-game series against the Mean Green 5-3 on Saturday.

All five of the Golden Panther runs were unearned and were scored with two outs in the fifth inning.  Third baseman Rebecca Waters recorded all three errors for NT including two in the fifth innings.

The two teams combined for seven hits and four errors in wind chill temperatures of 33 degrees with wind blowing straight in from the north at 25 mph.

Preseason Sun Belt Player of the Year Kim Rodriguez had two of the three FIU hits in a 2-for-4 effort.  She also had two RBI’s, the only ones for the Golden Panthers.

Junior Kasey Barrett (9-8) pitched all seven innings and struck out six while allowing two earned runs.  NT starter Ashley Lail (7-5) walked five and allowed five runs, but none of them were earned.

FIU (18-19, 2-5 SBC) had something going in the third inning as freshman Ashley McClain singled down the left field line and then senior Desiree Fink bunted her over to second base.  With one out, Rodriguez grounded out to the shortstop and McClain was thrown out trying to go to third base for the double play.

North Texas (17-14, 5-4) scored in the bottom of the fourth inning after Mariza Martinez reached base on a throwing error by the pitcher Kasey Barrett.  The error proved to be costly as she advanced to second and later scored on a Sarah Jones single off the glove of a diving Katie Bell at second base to give NT a 1-0 lead.

After a pair of walks to Bell and Iriseldis Soberon in the fifth inning, FIU put runners at second and third with two outs for Fink.  Fink worked the count full before hitting a ground ball to third base that we mishandled by Waters and reached first safely while scoring Bell.  The next batter was Rodriguez hit a lined shot that went right through the pitcher into center field to score Soberon and Fink to give FIU a 3-1 lead.  With runners at second and third after a wild pitch, senior Jessica Landau hit a grounder to third base who committed her third error of the game and both runners scored to extend the FIU advantage to 5-1.

Caitlin Grimes hit a pinch-hit two-run home run in the seventh inning to bring NT closer at 5-3, but Barrett got the final out for her 11^th complete game of the season.

The Golden Panthers will finish the series against the Mean Green with a doubleheader on Sunday beginning at 12 p.m. ET.