MORE ON GAME 5: Q & A with North Carolina coach Mike Fox
OMAHA, Neb. – The Texas Longhorns couldn’t have seen this coming.
When it comes to trips, and successful trips at that, to the College World Series, there’s not a college baseball program better than the Longhorns. They entered the 2011 tournament with a nation’s best .599 winning percentage in the event, with Wichita State second on the list with a .593 percentage. The Longhorns also entered the event with 82 overall wins in 34 appearances, also the nation’s best.
Most impressive is the fact the Longhorns, before this week, had gone 0-2 in the CWS just two three times in program history – 1961, ’65 and ‘00.
Now you can add the 2011 team to the list after dropping a disappointing 3-0 decision to North Carolina in what particularly wasn’t a highly inspirational performance.
“It is not good to be the first interview the first two times in this tournament, and that’s what we are,” Texas coach Augie Garrido said. “All of us saw the game, and we can take our own point of view. I just know I’m proud of the leadership on this team for taking something that was scattered at the beginning of the season to keeping it functioning as one”
Still, the pain of going 0-2 in the College World Series is a tough pill for the Longhorns to swallow. Earlier this week, Garrido alluded to the fact Texas fans had gotten restless because his program missed the CWS last season after playing for the national title two seasons ago.
Garrido only was half kidding about that.
Though Longhorns fans on the average weren’t particularly restless, they expected one thing only once their team showed up to Omaha – the program winning its seventh national title.
That won’t happen.
In the Longhorns’ opener against Florida, ace right-handed pitcher Taylor Jungmann wasn’t sharp and was lifted from the game after just 4 1/3 innings. It was the second time in the last three weeks Jungmann had a shaky start.
Against North Carolina on Monday, the Longhorns had a tough decision to make. They could’ve started left-handed pitcher Sam Stafford, a solid matchup against North Carolina’s offensive lineup. They also had the perceived better option to start senior right-handed pitcher Cole Green. Green starting made sense considering he previously had been through the rigors of the CWS. He was the veteran.
The move backfired on the Longhorns as Green was lifted after just two innings after allowing two runs on five hits to the Tar Heels. Of course, what he did against the Heels likely didn’t matter much considering UT’s lacking offensive production.
“I was leaving the ball a little bit early in the game because my nerves were going,” Green said. “They’re a very good team and anytime I made a mistake they made me pay for it.”
While Green, the senior, failed to set the tone in the game, the opposite was the case with North Carolina left-handed freshman pitcher Kent Emanuel, who tossed the first complete game in the CWS since former Tar Heels right-handed pitcher Robert Woodward accomplished the feat against Clemson in 2006. It also was the first time since 1993 a freshman has tossed a complete game in the CWS.
Emanuel used a solid three-pitch mix to keep the Longhorns off balance. He struck out five batters, walked just one and allowed just four hits in the performance.
“He mixed his pitches well early in counts and kind of had us on our heels the entire game,” Texas shortstop Brandon Loy said. “He wasn’t anything overpowering, he just hit his spots, threw pitches for strikes and made it tough for hitters.”
Overall, the Longhorns scored just four runs in the College World Series, a number that definitely is deemed unacceptable in the Lone Star State.
Most importantly, Texas is headed home after two games in the new ballpark.
And worst of all, it never saw it coming.
“We didn’t come here to be the first team to leave, and we’re never going to be satisfied leaving here without winning a national title,” Loy said. “We fought through the past couple of weeks with our backs against the wall. It’s tough to leave now. We wanted to win the national title pretty bad.”
Kendall Rogers is the college baseball editor for Perfect Game USA and has covered the sport for over 10 seasons. He can be reached at kendall@perfectgame.org