UNC baseball notebook: Emanuel flirts with no-hitter

It was a strange beginning for Kent Emanuel.

Before the North Carolina ace could shut down Maryland in UNC’s 12-4 win Friday, Emanuel opened the evening by doing something he rarely ever does — walk the leadoff batter.

Even stranger: After the walk, home-plate umpire Bruce Ravan approached the mound for a lengthy discussion with the left-hander.

“I’m not sure what that was,” coach Mike Fox said. “I’ve never seen an umpire after the first batter walk out to the pitcher. That was a little unusual.”

Emanuel said the visit was a result of some tension between the umpire and himself.

“Me and him, we were struggling getting on the same page with where the strike zone was,” Emanuel said. “And he came out there, and he called one low and the next two high, and I was like, ‘You gotta give me one of them.’

“And he came out there and kind of hinted at where I should throw it.”

Apparently, Emanuel took the hint. The southpaw went on a roll after that mound visit, retiring the next 16 batters he faced before giving up a home run to nine-hole hitter Jose Cuas with one out in the sixth.

He was masterful with his location, mixing in a sharp curveball, slider and a change-up to go along with his pinpoint fastball. The home run he allowed to Cuas came off a change-up that Emanuel said wasn’t that bad of a pitch — it just wasn’t the best option after throwing several other off-speed pitches in the at-bat.

“I spotted it up fairly well,” Emanuel said. “I think it’s just a dumb choice on my part to go with that. I should’ve gone with something else.”

Regardless, Emanuel came away with a strong performance, allowing just two earned runs and three hits through eight innings for his sixth win of the season.

It might have been an unusual beginning for Emanuel, but the rest of his outing was all too familiar.

‘You jinxed me’

A certain Daily Tar Heel sportswriter might have been partly responsible for the home run that broke up Emanuel’s no-hitter in the sixth inning.

I don’t mean to jinx anything, but Kent Emanuel has allowed no hits through 5 innings. A game-starting walk is his only blemish.

— Michael Lananna (@mlananna) April 6, 2013

I told Emanuel after the game about the tweet.

“Ah, you jinxed me,” Emanuel said, joking. “That’s alright. I bet you’re not the only one. There’s probably someone in the locker room I can get mad at. I’ll just blame you for now.”

Emanuel said he’s a believer in the age-old baseball superstition of not talking about a no-hitter in progress.

“It’s weird how it works,” Emanuel said. “It always happens like that: If you say something, it always seems the next guy up is going to break the no-hitter or whatever’s going on.”

But Emanuel stressed that he doesn’t think about jinxes or anything of the sort when he’s on the mound — just when he’s watching other pitchers from the dugout.

On Friday in particular, he said he didn’t even think about the possibility of pitching a no-no.

“One thing I’ve learned since I’ve been here is nine innings is long — it’s a lot of work,” Emanuel said.

“I’m not exactly sure how deep I went, but I know I didn’t get that deep where it crossed my mind.”

Odds and ends

• Maryland pitchers walked 10 UNC batters and hit another three in what was a slowing-moving, laboring affair. “It was kind of a methodical win for us,” Mike Fox said. “I thought the game was going slow as molasses. I mean, if I get bored in the dugout, I know everyone else is in the ballpark.”

• UNC once again produced some big innings with the bats, scoring three runs in the third, four runs in the fourth and five runs in the seventh. Emanuel said it can sometimes be difficult to stay sharp after long innings like those, but he certainly welcomes the run support. “I can’t say I had the same luxury last year, so it’s definitely comforting,” Emanuel said. “It can be bad sometimes. Sometimes, I’m like, ‘Yeah, hurry up. Let me go back out there.’”

• Saturday’s game (at 6 p.m.) might be a different story, as UNC will face a tough right-hander in Brady Kirkpatrick. “Kirkpatrick’s good,” Fox said. “He’s really good. He’s got their best numbers, and he doesn’t give up any hits … I think (UNC starter Benton Moss) is gonna have to be good tomorrow, so I’m sure we’re going to have a different game tomorrow night.”