‘We don’t need to be a rollercoaster’: Moss, Byrnes seniors rejuvenate Rebels on bus ride home

Byrnes baseball is 6-4 on the season after a series win over rival Gaffney last week. (PHOTO | KWAI COOK)

Jake Moss made one simple request. He wanted the bus.

Immediately after a demoralizing 12-2 loss at Gaffney on Wednesday night, Byrnes’ senior third baseman approached head coach Taylor Hollifield. Moss and some of the Rebel seniors wanted a chance to speak with his teammates directly — and alone.

“Jake and a couple of our seniors came up to me and asked if the coaches would step off the bus for a few minutes after the game,” said Hollifield. “They wanted to talk to the team.”

Hollifield was in full support. The wheels fell off the Rebel bus halfway through Wednesday’s game as Byrnes allowed Gaffney to score 10 combined runs in the third and fourth innings. Hollifield had no holdups about letting his senior leaders speak truth into the team.

He did offer Moss and the seniors a caution, however.

“I told them to be careful,” said Hollifield. “When you have those meetings early as a team, it can go one of two ways. There's never really a middle ground there. It can either go exceptionally well and rally you as a team, or it can kind of defeat you and deflate you a little bit more.”

If Friday’s rubber match between the Rebels and Indians was any indication, Moss and his fellow seniors gave a pretty rousing pep talk on that bus.

Byrnes took down Gaffney 16-3 in five innings on Friday night to claim the series and climb back to .500 in 5-A Region 2 play. Moss went 2-3 with 3 RBIs.

Byrnes senior Jake Moss approached head coach Taylor Hollifield and asked to speak to his teammates alone on the bus after Wednesday’s 12-2 loss at Gaffney. Moss implored his teammates to trust one another and to find more consistency.

Moss offered insight as to what he told his teammates on the bus.

“We just weren’t playing to the level we wanted to be as a team,” said Moss. “We have been struggling to find consistency. We have been a roller coaster at times. We don’t need to be a roller coaster.

“I wanted the seniors to sit down and have a heartfelt talk with the guys. And when we did, I could tell they were really listening. It was clear everybody wanted to be better and wanted to improve as a team.”

Moss says the motivational talk to his teammates was far from his realm of comfort — and even farther from his style and personality. 

“Honestly, I’m usually the guy that’s laughing and cracking jokes,” said Moss. “I like making people happy, not being super serious or sad. So it was weird to step into that role, but at the same time, I felt comfortable with it. But that’s not usually my style.”

“The main point of the conversation for us was to make sure everyone on the team trusted each other,” said Bubba Gowan, senior catcher for Byrnes. “I needed all of those guys to know that everyone on that bus and I had their backs.”

A year after losing eight seniors, the Rebels have strived for consistency while playing more guys with limited experience. Leadership among this year’s batch of seniors is paramount for the team’s success, Hollifield says.

“There are some guys on this team who have been dudes their whole life, and there are some others that are having growing pains a little bit,” said Hollifield. “They're kind of having to learn to mesh together…having some of our more experienced guys step up as leaders is what we need.”

Byrnes head coach Taylor Hollifield daps up senior third baseman Jake Moss after a hit.

Hollifield stepped off the bus Wednesday to let Moss and his seniors speak, but after about 15 minutes went by, he snuck onto the steps to listen in to what was being said.

“I crept on the bus to listen after about 15 minutes. And then after we got back home and everyone went on their way, I saw some words of encouragement and uplifting texts start flowing into the team group chat. That made me happy to see. I knew they'd broken through.

“I like when our older guys and seniors lead the team instead of me being down their throat 24/7. That’s what’s going to get us to where we want to go.”

Up next: Byrnes baseball will take on Boiling Springs in a three-game set beginning at home on Monday, March 24. 

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