When Virginia Tech third baseman Charisse Mariconda’s homerun in the bottom of the ninth cleared the fence, it gave the Hokies a 2-1 victory and handed junior pitcher Abbie Sims her seventh loss of the season at the Walnut Creek Softball Complex in Raleigh.

But it didn’t, however, negate the six shutout innings she threw to start the game in the eyes of coach Lisa Navas.

“Abbie pitched well today,” Navas said. “She just wasn’t as strong in the later innings.”

Sims was critical of her late inning performance as well.

“I don’t think this was my best outing,” Sims said. “I could have done better, especially in last couple of innings, but my team played great defense behind me.”

Navas took the blame for Sims’ late inning struggles after the game saying she should have gone to the bullpen.

“I was going to make a change and I didn’t,” Navas said. “Now I regret it.”

Hokies pitcher Angela Tincher also went the distance, giving up only two hits.

The second of those hits, a Jennifer Chamberlain homerun, scored the home team’s lone run and tied the score 1-1 in the seventh.

“Knowing I was probably only going to get one pitch to drive,” Chamberlain said. “I just wanted to focus on seeing the ball and driving it.”

The homerun was Chamberlain’s second off of Tincher in the weekend series. Chamberlain said her previous at bats against Tincher motivated her in the seventh inning.

“I was so angry with her getting me out before that,” Chamberlain said. “It was about me this time and not about her.”

She homered off Tincher in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, which State split with the Hokies.

Tincher got the one run decision over Sims in the game with Virginia Tech winning 3-2, something Navas said was frustrating for her.

“We battled both games against [Tincher] and we just came up on the short end of the stick,” Navas said. “We just need to get better and we’ll face her later in the season.”

With the two losses this weekend the Pack’s overall record drops to 28-12 and to 4-2 in the conference. Despite the losses Navas said she feels good about the team at this point in the season.

“We’ve been playing well,” Navas said. “And we need to continue to play well and just shake this off.”

State next hosts Kent State on Tuesday in a doubleheader that starts at 1 p.m. Two games Navas said will not be easy for the Pack given the quality of the Golden Flashes’ softball program.

“We’ve got to go at Kent State on Tuesday,” Navas said. “They have a good program, they beat Florida State, so we’re going to have to get back to work.”