The 2025 high school baseball regular season kicked off on Tuesday night for most of our local squads following a Monday washout. For the Byrnes Rebels and Spartanburg Vikings, the season would open at a location that seems fitting given that in a month, the City of Spartanburg will usher in a new era with a brand new minor league baseball team after a 30 year hiatus in a shiny state-of-the-art downtown ballpark.
Yes, in a series with high stakes as far as getting ahead in the region standings, it also had the nostalgia of giving a glimpse into Spartanburg’s rich baseball history by hosting 2 of the three games at historic Duncan Park, which has served as the permanent home field for the Vikings since 2008.
Nostalgia and excited anticipation of the near future aside, the series itself could not have featured 3 contests that were any more the polar opposites of one another.
Game one featured a fantastic pitching matchup between the aces of their respective teams. Bolen Fields got the nod for third-year Spartanburg Head Coach Jesse Dyar’s squad while Byrnes’ Taylor Hollifield threw out Connor Crenshaw. As usual with good pitching matchups, runs were at a premium. The Rebels drew first blood after Jaxson Camp drew a leadoff walk and stole 2nd. Connor Crenshaw helped his own case with a 1 out RBI single. Fields would then proceed to walk DJ Jones before eventually settling in. not to run into trouble again until the 5th inning.
Byrnes once again cashed in on the leadoff man reaching, this time on a single. Blake Collins moved him into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt that would be followed with an RBI knock from Camp. Those 2 runs looked like they’d be the difference in this pitching-heavy affair until the bottom of the 6th.
Crenshaw was on fire for much of the game. Through 5 and a third innings, he had struck out 9, walked 1, and had given up just one hit. The problem? That hit was a huge one. Things began to unravel on Crenshaw and the Rebs in the 6th after a ground ball to 2nd from Spartanburg catcher Walker McCrory was bobbled for an E4. A passed ball and wild pitch back to back followed by a walk to pinch hitter Haydon Long, who later stole 2nd led to a game-tying single from Viking center fielder Alex Bright. Two batters later, Taylor Jakubchak gave Spartanburg the lead with an RBI single off reliever Chandler Hutcheson– the third and final run that would go on Connor’s line that would include just 2 earned.
In the end, Spartanburg added 2 more off Hutcheson with a Charlie McCrory double and an RBI base hit from Carson Bishop and went on to claim the opener 5-2.
Game 2 of the series went to “The Backyard” at Byrnes High and it was more of a hitting clinic than an example of elite pitching. Harrison Keels started on the bump for the Rebels and failed to record an out before being replaced by Hayden Lister. Spartanburg ended up hanging a 10 spot and coming up just 4 hitters shy of having batted around twice. Byrnes answered nicely, scoring 2 runs off Jakubchak with an RBI double from 2nd baseman Jake Moss and a 2 out RBI single from catcher Bubba Gowan. Unfortunately for the Rebs, the Vikes managed to once again stretch back to a 10-run lead as the game got to the 5th inning, giving Byrnes just 3 outs to avoid losing the series on a run-rule.
The Rebels mounted a 4-run rally that was highlighted by a 2 run homer by Crenshaw and a Collins run-scoring single, managing to make what was going to be a run-rule the previous inning into a 3-run game with another pair of RBI singles from Crenshaw and Collins in the 6th. The Vikings would finally find the scoreboard again in the top of the 7th with two runs of their own and went on to clinch the series with a 15-10 victory.
“Tuesday night, we played damage control really well. But I told them to keep battling and fighting. I felt eventually we would have a chance to get to Crenshaw. In the 3 years I have been watching him, that is the best I have seen him”, said Jesse Dyar of his team’s win in game one.
“Tonight, we got a bit sideways”, he added after taking the series in game 2. “But, Byrnes is a really good hitting team. I told my guys that I would not have felt safe unless we had a 20 run lead. They are a tough opponent and despite us hanging a 10 spot in the first inning, they battled back like I knew they would. To battle back like that says a lot about their club. I am really proud of our boys for being resilient and finishing in back to back games. We have a great group of young men that play their tails off from the first pitch to the last.”
In the Friday night return to Duncan Park, the game had the same feel of a college Sunday game or an MLB getaway day where one team has already taken the series. The pitching matchup was Jaxson Camp vs Charlie McCrory, and in similar yet flip-flopped fashion to game 2, it was Byrnes that blew the game open in the 1st inning.
Camp led off the game by reaching on a dropped third strike, later going 1st to third on a hit and run single from Jake Moss. He eventually came home on a wild pitch. Byrnes worked the bases loaded and eventually dealt 2 huge blows on a 2 run double from Gowan and a bases-clearing triple from Keels. Kade Fortenberry also added an RBI on a single to cap the 7 spot.
Also in a mirror of the middle game of the series, Spartanburg managed to scratch across a pair of runs in the home half of the 1st, cashing in a leadoff walk to Alex Bright and a 1 out base on balls to with a Walker McCrory RBI single. But, that would be all they could muster as Camp went the distance with 8 strikeouts, 4 walks, 3 hits, 2 runs, and only one earned while Keels went 2 for 3 with 5 RBIs and a run scored in a 13-3 run rule win to salvage the finale.
“We did not do the little things that we practice and preach. We didn’t execute and pitch ahead, and when you have a 10 spot put on you in the top of the 1st, it is tough to come back from”, said Hollifield after his team dropped the series Wednesday night at home.
“The one compliment I can give after this is that the guys fought back and competed. That is all I can ask for. Going forward, we have to do a better job of pitching to contact, making plays behind us, and competing”, he later added.
With opening week in the books, Byrnes (1-2) will face the Gaffney Indians, who also dropped 2 of three on opening week to Wade Hampton in a three game set. The opener is scheduled for Monday night at 6:30 at ‘The Backyard” in Duncan with games 2 and three on Wednesday and Friday respectively. Spartanburg (2-1) will take on those same Generals that took 2 of three from Gaffney this past week starting Monday night at WHHS with a 6:30 first pitch. The middle game is Wednesday at Duncan Park, and the finale will be back in Greenville on Friday.
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