By Marshall Tempest
Reporter
Last week marked the end of Apopka athletics for the 2024-2025 school year with the softball team’s loss to Lake Brantley in the Class 7A Regional Semifinals. The team finished the season with a 22-6 record and ranked 64th in the state.
This season, the Blue Darter softball team showed marked improvement. Finishing with 22 wins, Apopka stacked up more victories this season than its last two combined. Head coach Mike MacWithey said throughout the season that this year was a culture reset for the team.
Starting the season 8-1, Apopka was on fire but ran into its first rough patch when facing Lake Brantley for the first time this season. The Blue Darters suffered their second loss of the season to the Patriots, falling 5-1. The team went on to lose its next game to Deltona and fell to 10-4 on April 2.
With a weaker schedule than some of the teams they knew they would face in the state tournament, the Blue Darters needed to tally up as many wins as possible before the end of the season to raise their ranking and, in turn, their seeding in the state tournament.
After suffering their fourth loss of the season to Horizon, the Blue Darters reeled off 10 straight wins to close out the regular season with a 20-4 record.
With an excellent record and phenomenal run to end the regular season, Apopka received the two-seed in the 7A District 3 Tournament, while Lake Brantley received the one-seed.
As the two-seed, Apopka was given a first-round bye and faced Seminole High School (Sanford) in the Semifinals. In a tough game, Apopka squeaked by the Seminoles 4-3 to secure their 11th straight win and a spot in the district championship game. With a district title, Apopka was guaranteed a spot in the state tournament and would get better seeding. But before they dreamed of an easier route to the state championship, they had to face the Patriots once again.
In an instant classic, Lake Brantley stormed back from an 8-3 deficit and walked off with a two-run homer to take home the district title, 9-8.
With a district title snatched from their hands, the Blue Darters still made the state tournament as a five-seed.
In the first round of the state tournament, Apopka faced the fourth-seeded Atlantic Coast Stingrays. The Blue Darters traveled to Jacksonville and came away with their own fairy tale ending after falling behind early.
Down 7-3 in the sixth, Apopka put up a seven-run sixth inning to secure a 10-9 win in a nail-biter that came down to the final pitch.
After the victory over the Stingrays, Apopka was again matched against the Lake Brantley Patriots in the Regional Semifinal. The Blue Darters were eager for the rematch and a third chance at Lake Brantley, but the game did not fall their way. The Patriots won 9-2 in their biggest win over Apopka this season, outhitting the Blue Darters 13-4.
The loss marked the end of the 2025 season but also marked a turn in the Apopka softball program. MacWithey believes this year was a culture-shifting year, that next year might be even better, and that hopefully, a very bright future lies ahead for the team.
Key Players
One of the most explosive players in central Florida and a menace at the plate this season for the Blue Darters, Taylor Smith was Apopka’s most valuable player this season. She led her team in batting average (.487), on-base percentage (.613), slugging percentage (1.145), home runs (13), runs (41), hits (37), RBIs (44) and triples (2).
She ranked fifth in the state in home runs and 15th in RBIs.
The best part about it is that Smith is only a junior, so she’ll return next year for Apopka.
The Blue Darters had other batters tearing it up this season, including Ava Gonzalez, Skyla Durand, Sydney Bartkin and Alicia Lopez. Those four combined had a batting average of .400 and contributed 104 of the team’s 303 total runs and 98 of the team’s 238 RBIs.
The only senior Apopka will lose is Durand, with the other three returning for their senior seasons.
Gonzalez was by far Apopka’s defensive anchor this season with a .975 fielding percentage. The Blue Darters collected 14 double plays this season, with Riley Ford leading the team with four. Apopka committed 52 errors this season for an average of 1.86 per game.
The Apopka pitching staff had moments of greatness and mediocrity this season. The team finished the season with an ERA of 3.15. All of Apopka’s pitchers performed very similarly over this season, but Ava Millspaugh was the team’s No. 1 pitcher in more ways than one.
Millspaugh averaged almost three innings per game (2.93) and finished the season with 82 innings, while Apopka’s two other pitchers combined for 71 and 2/3 innings. Millspaugh finished the season with a 3.07 ERA, 12 wins, two losses, one save, one shutout, two no-hitters, and one perfect game in 26 appearances on the mound.
Bartkin and Mia Aeschilman were right behind her, both having great seasons. Bartkin finished with a 3.04 ERA, three wins, two losses, two saves, one shutout, one no-hitter, and one perfect game in 18 appearances.
Aeschilman was injured for much of the season, so she only saw the mound 12 times. But in those 12 appearances, she collected a 3.27 ERA and two wins.
All three of the Blue Darter pitchers were juniors, so next year will be an even stronger season for the pitching staff as they enter their senior seasons.
This season was a shift in the right direction for the Apopka softball program. With only two seniors departing, the Blue Darters will have a great opportunity to build on the success of 2025 with an even deeper playoff run in 2026.
