Virginia Tech softball's 17-game winning streak was snapped on Thursday in Pittsburgh. (Virginia Tech athletics)

No. 11 Virginia Tech softball has grown accustomed to winning, just by nature of how the last month-plus has gone. At various points through the last 39 days, eight different teams tried and failed to score more runs than the Hokies, to no avail.

However, Pitt figured out how to sneak past them for a 7-6 win in nine innings on Thursday. It marked Tech’s first loss since March 9 — snapping a 17-game winning streak.

“We fought,” Virginia Tech right fielder Cori McMillan told Tech Sideline. “There were some plays we probably could have made better. We probably could have adjusted a little quicker than we did, but we’re onto tomorrow.”

Tech (36-6, 14-2 ACC) pitcher Emma Lemley simply didn’t have her best stuff. In three frames, she allowed six hits, six runs and three walks. Her command was fine — of her 77 pitches, 42 were strikes — but she provided the Panthers (16-26, 5-14) with too many hittable pitches.

Three of Lemley’s allowed knocks cleared the fence. In the top of the third, Pitt right fielder Camryn Murphy sent a 2-0 pitch over the scoreboard in left-center field, turning a 3-1 Hokies lead into a 4-3 advantage for Pitt.

One inning later, Panthers shortstop Ana Hernandez and catcher KK Esparza each added solo knocks. Those three swings flipped a significant Hokies lead into an even more significant deficit on the road.

The Hokies mounted a comeback with their best effort, though. In the fifth, McMillan tattooed a pitch over the right-field wall, cutting the deficit to two. On top of that, the bomb marked McMillan’s 20th of the 2025 campaign, inching within one of the single-season program record she set a season ago.

Then third baseman Jordan Lynch homered in her own right. She finished with a home run and an RBI triple in the third inning.

In the sixth, McMillan batted in another run with a fielder’s choice. She hit a ground ball to Pitt second baseman Tieley Vaughn in what would have been a fairly routine double play if her speed didn’t beat the throw to first base. McMillan reaching first allowed catcher Zoe Yaeger to score and tie the game, though designated player Kylie Aldridge attempted to run home and did not make it in time.

Yaeger’s run tied the game at six runs apiece, where it remained into the ninth. But with runners on first and second, Panthers center fielder Kylie Griggs singled into left field, scoring Desirae Martinez and ending the game.

Tech pitcher Sophie Kleiman, though, gave it her all. The Indiana transfer relieved Lemley in the fourth and tossed 108 pitches across 5 ⅔ frames. Although Kleiman’s stat line was far from pretty — she allowed eight hits and four walks — she executed pitches when it mattered, aside from the winning run in the ninth.

Pitt’s arms were just a little bit better than Virginia Tech’s. Bekah Duck tossed five frames and allowed six runs — including four earned — though she kept her team in the game. Gwen Sparks threw the last four and picked up the win; she allowed no runs through extra innings and struck out three.

The difference was probably the Panthers’ defense. Look in the eighth inning, for instance. With one out, Yaeger knocked a blooper into shallow center field, which hits the turf most of the time, though Vaughn leaped in the air to prevent her from reaching base. Two batters later, left fielder Trinity Martin cranked a long fly ball to the warning track, but Murphy reached up and snagged her knock to end the frame.

“It wasn’t the result we wanted, and you have to give Pitt credit. We made quite a few loud outs; that happens,” Virginia Tech head coach Pete D’Amour said. “From a pitching standpoint, we needed to command the ball a little better. That happens sometimes, too. We never gave up or thought we were out of it. We just have to be better tomorrow.”

Winning 17 games in a row is the exception, not the norm. Very few teams mount a streak of half that amount, much less one that approached 20 games. At some point, most teams lose.

The loss snapped the longest active winning streak in the country. Entering the stretch run of the regular season, the Hokies will look to build another substantial winning streak, potentially boosting their resume as the season progresses through May.

Tech will have less than a day to regroup before beginning a doubleheader to close the series beginning at 2 p.m. ET on Friday.

Box Score: Pitt 7, No. 11 Virginia Tech 6 (9 innings)