Longhorns make quick CWS exit after 3-0 loss

OMAHA, Neb. – Texas couldn't fight off elimination this time, not with a second straight shaky performance by its starting pitcher and an offense that wilted in the heat and humidity at the College World Series.

Cole Green lasted just two-plus innings and the Longhorns managed only four singles Monday in a 3-0 elimination-game loss to North Carolina.

Freshman left-hander Kent Emanuel pitched the first complete-game shutout in five years, sending the Longhorns (49-19) out of the CWS in two games for only the second time in 25 appearances since 1966.

"We didn't come here to be the first team to leave," shortstop Brandon Loy said. "You're never going to be satisfied, I don't think, unless you come out here with a national championship. We did some amazing things with this team. It's tough to leave now."

The Longhorns had been 8-1 in elimination games since the Big 12 tournament, but Emanuel was too much for them to overcome.

Texas went three-up, three-down in 11 of 18 innings against Florida and North Carolina.

"We did get outplayed twice. That really is the bottom line," coach Augie Garrido said. "I, for one, am proud of the leadership on this team, and I'm not just throwing that around. They took a team that was pretty scattered at the beginning of the year and pulled it together and kept it functioning like one, so that we had the opportunity to come here."

The Longhorns came to Omaha well-armed, but ace Taylor Jungmann gave them only 4 1-3 innings in the 8-4 loss to Florida and Monday's starter Cole Green got hit hard and lasted just two-plus innings.

Green (8-4) matched his shortest start of the season after having gone at least five innings in each of his 12 starts dating to March 27.

It was Green's second straight rough outing in Omaha. In 2009, he lasted one inning as the starter in the 11-4 championship-game loss to LSU.

"I think I was leaving the ball up early in the game," Green said. "I was just excited, the nerves were going."

The 19-year-old Emanuel showed plenty of maturity in methodically and coolly keeping the Longhorns off balance with changeups and curves when they were sitting on fastballs.

"Other than his left arm, that's his best trait, his demeanor," Tar Heels coach Mike Fox said. "You don't see a lot of emotion out of him. That's what you want when you're on the mound, especially on this stage."

North Carolina's offense, which couldn't get timely hits in an opening loss to Vanderbilt, produced enough to support Emanuel.

Jacob Stallings hit a two-run single in the third inning and Ben Bunting finished a four-hit day with an RBI double in the ninth for the Tar Heels (51-15), who play Vanderbilt or Florida on Wednesday.

Emanuel (9-1) walked one and struck out five. North Carolina's Robert Woodard pitched the last shutout here, blanking Clemson in 2006. The last freshman to do it was LSU's Brett Laxton in 1993 against Wichita State.

"It was a brilliantly pitched game by their pitcher," Garrido said. "He was terrific. He got three pitches over. He used them in different count spots where he would lead guys off of changeups. He'd lead guys off with breaking balls. He'd lead guys off with fastballs and he had command throughout the game from beginning to end."

The Longhorns twice ran themselves out of innings, with Jonathan Walsh getting doubled off in the second and Mark Payton in the fourth.

"Any time we can end the inning on double play and get two for one is always big," Emanuel said. "That's just credit to our outfielders today. Those are two uncommon double plays, and I was fortunate to have two of them."

North Carolina fans, including basketball coach Roy Williams, began chanting "Heels, Heels, Heels" after Bunting's double in the top of the ninth, and they applauded as Emanuel emerged from his dugout to start the bottom half.

Emanuel needed only nine pitches to finish off the Longhorns, getting Tant Shepherd to pop out to first, Payton to ground out and Brandon Loy to fly out to right.

Garrido chalked up this year's CWS as a learning experience for his young players.

"Until you've been here, it's harder to play here," he said. "With 11 freshmen coming back who have the right attitude, the right talent, and the right skill, the leaders of this team have given them an introduction to the College World Series as we now know it in the new ballpark, which is absolutely beautiful and a wonderful place to be playing."