Wood Myers sets table for UNC baseball rally

The doubt certainly crossed his mind as his team headed into the bottom of the ninth inning Wednesday night, and perhaps rightfully so.

In eight innings of work, the North Carolina baseball team had put up a quiet two runs against Elon — both in the sixth — and was on track for another hushed performance in the ninth, trailing 4-2.

But then Wood Myers watched as Tyler Ramirez singled and Alex Raburn found his own way to first on an Elon throwing error just moments later. Then Wood Myers watched as Michael Russell laid down a bunt single and helped bring Ramirez home to cut the deficit to one after yet another Elon error.

And then, before he knew it, Wood Myers stepped to the plate himself — not so skeptical anymore, the tying run on third base.

He looked to coach Mike Fox for the sign, bent his knees and raised his bat.

Ball one.

He paused for a second as the second pitch came over the dish and executed what Fox had in mind perfectly.

“Obviously my last at-bat there was a guy on third, he was the tying run,” Myers said.

“I was just trying to lift the ball to the outfit so he could tag up. Just doing whatever I can, I guess.”

His teammate Ramirez did just that — tagged up and scored to tie the game. Minutes later, sophomore third baseman Landon Lassiter would send a deep shot to the center-field wall to score Michael Russell for the walkoff 5-4 win.

The entire UNC squad rocketed up from the dugout to embrace Lassiter. Russell ripped his helmet off the second he crossed the plate and joined in the festivities.

Lassiter was the hero. There was no denying that. But it started with Myers, the 5-foot-9, 171-pound freshman out of Chapel Hill and UNC’s leader in plate appearances. Lassiter couldn’t have won the game if Myers' sac fly hadn’t tied it first.

The second baseman went 1-for-4 with two RBIs and a run.  But perhaps his most important takeaway from Wednesday wasn’t a statistic that could be found on a box score.

“Winning that game, just bearing down going into the last inning — we’ve got a lot of confidence right now,” he said.

Pitching coach Scott Forbes said Myers exudes confidence, that nothing ever fazes him.

“He’s a throwback. He plays hard, he’s tough, he slides into bags hard,” Forbes said.

“He plays the game exactly how you want kids to play it.”

For Myers, that approach is a simple one.

“I just go out there and play baseball every day. It’s pretty fun,”he said through a grin.

“Just got out there, have fun, do my job.”

And on Wednesday that’s just what he did.