GoHeels Exclusive: Just The Next Pitch
April 27, 2018 | Baseball, Featured Writers
By Pat James, GoHeels.com
Even now, three years removed from his freshman season on the North Carolina baseball team, Brett Daniels occasionally reminisces about how that year unfolded.
In 2015, Trevor Kelley and Trent Thornton anchored a UNC bullpen that pitched 227 2/3 innings. The duo combined for 119 2/3. The other 108 were dispersed among 11 other Tar Heel pitchers.Â
Among them, Daniels tossed only three innings over three relief appearances. He also went just 2 1/3 over two starts. So ever since then, whenever he's been called on to pitch, he's relished the opportunity, knowing how rare it once was.Â
"I'm never going to say I don't want to throw that day," he said. "I just like having the ball in my hands, and I'm more comfortable when I'm up there."
That's been more often than not during his senior season.
Entering this weekend's three-game series at N.C. State, which is tied with UNC (28-13, 15-6) atop the overall ACC standings, Daniels has made 24 appearances. Those are tied for the ninth most in the country and the second most in the league.
Despite making just one start, he has already pitched a career-high 45 innings. Only starters Tyler Baum (53) and Austin Bergner (47 2/3) have thrown more for the Tar Heels this season.
Daniels has proven highly effective, as well. His 2.00 ERA is tied for 47th nationally. His six wins are the most a Carolina pitcher has registered out of the bullpen through the first 41 games of a season since R.C. Orlan started 7-0 in 2012.
"Anytime we need anything, he's long relief, he can come in for situations and he can come in for short relief," said Brandon Riley of Daniels. "He can really do it all. That's invaluable out of the 'pen."
Perhaps Daniels' most important trait, both this season and in past ones, is the composure he consistently displays on the mound. But that hasn't always been the case.
Growing up in Fuquay-Varina, N.C., Daniels said he started playing baseball at an early age in his family's garage. His father, Ken, set up a device in there that soft-tossed wiffle balls. Daniels would hit them and pretend to round the bases. His love for baseball grew from there.
Occasionally, he said, he'd play with a bad attitude when he was younger. Ken always told him there was no room for negative emotions on the field. Eventually, that message got through.
"I showed my butt pretty good in a game in AAU ball or something," Daniels said, "and he got on me pretty good. After that, it was no more of that."
Daniels almost always pitched, he said. But he lacked much velocity. To help combat that early on in his baseball career, he developed a changeup, then more of an Eephus pitch, that he used to keep hitters off balance.
Finally, around his junior year of high school, his velocity increased. College coaches and questionnaires subsequently started appearing. And after long thinking he'd be an infielder, specifically a third baseman, if he ever played in college, he committed to UNC as a pitcher.
"When I came on my visit, it was 2013," Daniels said. "So I think they lost a total of 12 games that year and went to Omaha. It was pretty easy once they made the offer. But also, I was a lifelong fan. The entire family, on both sides, are big Carolina fans. So it was pretty easy."
The transition to college, however, included some difficulties.
There was the more intense strength and conditioning program than he was accustomed to. There was also a busier practice schedule. On the mound, he also needed to earn the trust of the coaching staff, as well as his teammates.
Entering his sophomore year, Daniels hadn't quite accomplished that. But the team's first ACC series of the 2016 season presented an opportunity, he said.
Daniels made only one appearance through UNC's first 11 games. Then with the Tar Heels leading Pittsburgh 14-2 on March 11, 2016, he entered the game in the ninth inning with the bases loaded and no outs. He struck out the first batter he faced. A game-ending double play followed.
Two days later, he pitched three scoreless innings of relief in a 5-0 loss against the Panthers.
"After that," Daniels said, "they just kept rolling with me."
He ultimately pitched 22 1/3 innings before surrendering his first run of the season. Some elbow problems surfaced late in the campaign, he said, as he allowed at least one run in five of his last six appearances.
Still, he emerged as a key piece of the bullpen, posting a 2.17 ERA across 37 1/3 innings. He then went 5-0 with a 2.68 ERA as a junior.
This season, Daniels and Zack Gahagan are the Tar Heels' only seniors. Daniels doesn't say a whole lot, as Mike Fox noted. But he leads in other ways.
"He's a great example for our other young pitchers to watch," Fox said. "He'll give up a double, and then he'll come back and make a great pitch and jam a guy and get a ground ball. He's one of the best I've ever seen that's able to just go on to the next pitch.Â
"You can say that, 'Just the next pitch, just the next pitch.' But when you have a guy out there who actually does it and it's a visual thing our guys can see, it's a great example."
It will be integral for Daniels to continue setting such an example this weekend at N.C. State. UNC hasn't won a series against the Wolfpack in Raleigh since 2007.
"They pack it out, for sure, and they're loud and come at you," Daniels said. "It's a lot like going to East Carolina and playing, which was a lot of fun. We try not to make too much of a deal of it. We're just going to go out, have fun and see what happens."
And at some point, the ball will certainly be in Daniels' hands.
