Danford comes back to anchor closer spot

He has wrapped his entire body in athletic tape during batting practice, he falsely claims fluency in both Spanish and Portuguese and he passes countless innings quoting Forrest Gump for the amusement of his teammates.

In other words, Matt Danford is just crazy enough to be a closer.

“He’s a nut,” said North Carolina coach Mike Fox. “He’s the biggest goofball on our team, that goes without saying.”

The team’s resident comedian also happens to have developed into one of the top relief pitchers in the ACC, as he sports a 3-1 record with 0.74 ERA and six saves.

Danford will need to continue to dominate when the Tar Heels tangle with perennial power Miami at Boshamer Stadium in a three-game series beginning today.

But if a yearlong rehabilitation from shoulder surgery didn’t faze the redshirt sophomore, there’s no reason the Hurricanes’ potent bats should.

After a solid freshman season in 2003, in which he earned All-Tournament honors in North Carolina’s NCAA regional, Danford seemed primed to assert himself as an integral member of the pitching staff the following season.

But a persistent cyst on his back hampered his ability to maintain strength in his shoulder in the summer and fall of 2003. The pain led to bad habits in his training, and the bad habits led to more pain.

“He’s not the greatest athlete in the world, and he’s not a physically strong kid to where his body can overcome some of these things that other kids can,” said pitching coach Roger Williams.

By January, Danford realized that physical therapy wasn’t going to allow him to throw without pain once the season began, and surgery became the only option.

“It’s a helpless feeling because there’s nothing you can do, especially once you’re out there, to make it better,” he said. “You just hope, even if it’s painful, that you’re still physically capable of getting the ball across the plate and getting the job done.”

The surgery took place only days before the Tar Heels’ season-opening series against Seton Hall last year. But while his teammates went to work on the diamond, Danford went to work in the weight room.

It began simply with alternating ice packs and heat packs with assorted stretches mixed in. It continued with range-of-motion exercises and small weights to retrain his shoulder muscles.

“It’s really hard to describe, but for the first couple of days after surgery, your mind tells your arm to move, and it really just won’t,” he said.

Late in the spring, Danford’s therapy reached the point where he could throw a baseball again. He began a gradual progression of distance with a series of 25 light throws across a 30-foot span.

“It doesn’t sound like a whole lot,” Williams said. “But for (the players), it is, coming off an injury, to make that step back.”

But once Danford regained strength in his arm, the North Carolina coaches faced an important question: Where would he fit in the staff when he returned?

Danford, like most other pitchers recruited to Division-I programs, spent his high school career as a starter. But his experience in the bullpen as a freshman — as well as the Tar Heels’ embarrassment of riches in the starting rotation — made him a perfect candidate to close.

His ability to ignore past failures and focus on the task at hand also fit right in with his new role.

“How you measure someone after a poor outing and how they bounce back, that’s when you know you have a real player,” Danford said. “That’s what I try to do.”

And that’s what he’s done this season.

In one particular roller coaster of an outing against Virginia on April 3, Danford entered a tie game in the 10th inning and promptly surrendered the go-ahead run on a solo home run to left field.

But he settled down and allowed no further damage over the next 1 2/3 innings to give his team a chance to win — which it did, in 11 innings.

“One pitch, and the other team can tie the score or go ahead,” Fox said.

“You have to have a guy who really doesn’t think that, who just thinks, ‘I’m just going to get it done.’

“And Matt does that.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.