Mark Berman here in Oklahoma City, where the Virginia Tech softball team fell to Texas A&M 1-0 on the opening day of the Women's College World Series.
The Aggies scored in the bottom of the sixth on third baseman Charisse Mariconda's errant throw to first.
"When you've got two kids like [All-American pitchers] Angela Tincher and Megan Gibson going at it, one mistake can make the difference," Tech coach Scot Thomas said.
"We're going to be down for a little while but I don't think it's anything that we can't overcome," first baseman Beth Walker said.
The Hokies would have been in great shape if they had won. Their next foe would have been the only other unseeded team in the Series, Louisiana-Lafayette, which upset Florida today.
Instead, Tech will face Florida (67-4), the top seed in the entire NCAA tournament, in a losers' bracket game Saturday at noon on ESPN.
"Any team we're going to play right now is going to be tough," Tincher said. "They've had a great season and they've got the No. 1 spot, but .... we both lost a couple tough games. They went extra innings."
Florida also has an All-American pitcher, Stacey Nelson, who gave up an 8th-inning homer Thursday.
"We're going to find a way to score runs," said Thomas, overly confident considering his team's lack of clutch hits against Gibson today. "it's just a matter of kind of refocusing and battling and going up there with the mind-set that ... we're going to put the ball in play and make things happen."
Florida has only lost four games all year. Although the Hokies did see Florida lose in 8 innings and give up 3 runs on Thursday, so that has to give the Hokies some confidence.
Tech will practice today but won't have a game to play.
"I think it's good in some ways. [The day off] gives us time to adjust and kind of step back from things and focus," Tincher said.
Tincher - the national player of the year - threw a two-hitter, striking out 9 and walking none.
"Everything was working pretty well. I threw a lot of riseballs," she said.
"Tincher was everything that she is made out to be," A&M coach Jo Evans said.
A&M first threatened in the fourth, but with a runner on third, Tincher struck out Jamie Hinshaw and Holly Ridley to get out of the jam.
"They pull something into the outfield, that would've scored the run, so I was definitely trying to go for the strikeout," she said.
But in the sixth, A&M's Rhiannon Kliesing singled to center with one out and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Gibson grounded to third, and Mariconda threw wildly to first, enabling pinch runner Andrea Tovar to score. If Walker had left the bag and made the catch, Tovar would have had to stop at third. But Walker kept a foot on the bag and stretched, trying to get the final out.
The Hokies were failures in the clutch, leaving six runners on base. They had runners on first and second in the fifth and sixth but came up empty.
Gibson threw a 5-hitter, striking out nine and walking none. She was the Big 12 player and pitcher of the year.
"We were chasing a lot of down balls," said Walker, who struck out three times. "She had a good mix."
"Anytime you've got two player of the years going at each other, you're probably going to be in a scenario where whoever makes the least amount of mistakes has a good chance of winning," Thomas said.
Tech had just one error to A&M's two. But Tech's was the big one.
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