DURHAM, N.C. -- The ACC has been one of the most competitive
leagues in the country, if not the most competitive, with all eight of
its ACC tournament teams ranking in the top 20 of the RPI. But in No. 1
seed North Carolina’s pool, seedings are holding so far.
But
there’s more at stake for the Tar Heels than just an ACC championship,
which is probably why they kept the rotation intact by pitching ace Kent
Emanuel (9-3) against No. 8 seed Miami (35-22) in a 10-0 mercy-rule win
on Thursday.
North Carolina (49-8) is just a game behind
Vanderbilt for the best record in the nation, and a good ACC tournament
run might just get UNC the No. 1 overall seed. Either way, North
Carolina needed to get back on track after losing four of its final
seven games against ACC opponents.
“I just wanted to play well,
and I thought we play well. Our kids were ready. I challenged them
before the game ... it’s been pretty obvious the teams that have played
here so far in (the ACC) tournament and have won have really looked like
they’ve been really ready to play and locked in,” North Carolina head
coach Mike Fox said. “Just a good overall complete win. Got
contributions from everybody.”
Miami, on the other hand,
continues to struggle hitting the ball. Well, struggling might be
putting it a bit too mildly. Entering the game with North Carolina, no
one in the Miami lineup was hitting over .300 on the season and few were
even at .280 or higher.
Some of that had to do with the Tar
Heels, of course. Emanuel had a great performance, as did North
Carolina’s defense. But Emanuel did not record a single strikeout, and
Miami still had just four hits in 27 at-bats.
Emanuel had lost
his previous two starts for the Tar Heels, and he had struggled with
control from time to time. He had some issues early and walked the first
two batters he faced in the second inning.
Miami was starting to think that, despite its own offensive struggles, it could break through against Emanuel.
“That’s
the trait of a lot of really good pitchers - really, really good
pitchers, you’d better get them early,” Miami head coach Jim Morris
said. “After that, we had two hits with two outs and didn’t have many
opportunities after that.”
North Carolina was able to get a 6-3-1
double play, something that the team had actually been practicing
leading up to the tournament.
“The 6-3-1 double play, we worked
on that I don’t know how many times the other day,” Fox said. “That’s
probably the first one we’ve gotten all year, but we practiced them
about 10-15 times the other day so it’s cool that it happened.”
Despite
pitching a shutout, Emanuel wasn’t giving himself a ton of credit. He
felt like he was still having some control problems, and that Miami’s
hitters helped him out a bit more than future opponents might.
“(Miami
was) in total swing mode the whole day. Even if I made bad pitches, it
seemed like they would swing and get themselves out,” Emanuel said. “As
the game went on, I just basically had to keep it on the edges and they
were going to pop it up or ground out. That was probably the difference
in the game -- just keeping it from being up and over the plate.”
His
two walks in the second inning were his only two walks of the game, but
it was still two more walks than he had strikeouts. It’s certainly an
odd line for a someone who pitched a shutout.
“I’ve still got a
lot to improve on, and I will,” Emanuel said. “We played great defense
today and they picked me up for sure. Nine or ten runs isn’t bad either,
I guess.”
North Carolina is now 1-0 in pool play and Miami is
0-1. The Hurricanes will face North Carolina State (1-0 in pool play) on
Friday at 11:00 a.m. and the Tar Heels will play Clemson (0-1 in pool
play) that night at 7:00 p.m.
Wins by both North Carolina and
N.C. State would not only set up a one game defacto semifinal matchup
between the two best teams in the pool, it would also be sure to pack
the Durham Bulls Athletic Park full of local UNC and N.C. State fans.
Just one more win apiece, and the Saturday night showdown be a huge,
huge game.
