By Marshall Tempest
Reporter
The Apopka softball team suffered a heartbreaking loss last week, falling 9-8 to the Lake Brantley Patriots in the 7A District 3 Championship. In the bottom of the seventh, the Patriots took home the win with a walk-off two-run homer to steal the win from the Blue Darters.
“We were crushed, heartbroken,” Head coach Mike MacWithey said. “We had that game. We’re better than them. We just didn’t put it to bed. We didn’t finish. You gotta finish. It’s not how you start. It’s how you finish. And we did not finish. You know, all we can do is own it.”
Apopka and Lake Brantley fans, parents, and players all knew this would be a battle until the final at-bat, but no one could have foreseen the end of this game—a tale of David vs. Goliath with a disheartening twist. The Blue Darters came into the game as underdogs but were anything but unprepared for their matchup.
The game started with two scoreless innings, but Apopka broke through in the third. The Blue Darters stacked three runs in the inning, surprising the nationally ranked Patriots. It was no surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention this season that it was Taylor Smith who blasted a three-run homer to left field to open up the game.
Lake Brantley fought back in the bottom of the inning, bringing in one run due to an Apopka fielding error.
In the fourth, Apopka added an insurance run from Riley Ford, who scampered home on a passed ball to extend the Blue Darter lead to 4-1.
This is where Apopka opened the game. The Blue Darter batters were beginning to key in on the timing of Lake Brantley’s starting pitcher, and once they did, it was game over—or so they thought.
Apopka brought in four runs in the top of the fifth inning. Ford and Ava Gonzalez hit RBI singles, and Braylyn Pirillo added a sacrifice fly. A Patriot fielding error allowed the eighth run to score as the Blue Darters took a commanding 8-1 lead.
The Blue Darters were on top of the world, as were the Apopka fans. But the next three innings would prove to be a nightmare for the Blue Darters.
It started with the Patriots scoring two unearned runs in the bottom of the fifth to cut into the Apopka lead, 8-3.
Sydney Bartkin started on the mound for Apopka and had a great night, but when she gave up her second run of the game, head coach Mike MacWithey took her out and sent in Mia Aeschilman in relief.
Apopka couldn’t get anything going at the plate for the rest of the game as the Patriots brought in reliever Belle Rosales, who fired two shutout innings.
Brantley opened the bottom of the sixth with back-to-back solo home runs. The Patriots were trailing just 8-5 as Apopka brought in Millspaugh to relieve Aeschilman. Millspaugh struck out the next three batters to end the inning and stop the bleeding.
Up 8-5, all Apopka had to do was play defense, but the momentum had shifted. The Patriots pulled to within 8-6 on a one-out single, which was followed by a sacrifice fly. Clinging to a one-run lead, Apopka had just one out to go.
It was Lake Brantley’s Kayla Morris who stepped to the plate—the Patriots’ leading home run hitter who had already laced one over the fence. The Patriots had a runner on second and were facing two outs. Morris smacked the first pitch she saw hard, but it sailed foul. The second was a near-perfectly hit ball flying dead center way over the wall for a two-run, walk-off home run to win the game.
“When you lose, you reflect upon what you did and should’ve done,” Macwithey said after the loss. “And it was telling because I asked each player what they thought about the game and what they could have done better. And each one of them seemed pretty reflective. And guess what? One of them says, ‘Well, what do you think you should’ve done differently?’ I looked her in the face and said, “I should have walked that number six hitter when I had first base open and had two outs. That’s what I should have done.’
MacWithey said that he should’ve just walked Morris, especially since she is the team’s leading home run hitter and had already hit one earlier in the game. He said he was too busy thinking and not acting.
“But I was thinking about it instead of doing it,” MacWithey said. “And at some point, you got to just go do it. One more try. That’s our mentality now. Know what you’re going to do. Trust your instincts and go do it.”
The Patriots snatched the district title from the Blue Darters, but Apopka might have a chance for revenge in the state championship tournament, which will include both Apopka and Lake Brantley.
Apopka struggled in the loss on the field and on the mound. They had a less-than-spectacular day in the field, collecting four errors, which led to three unearned runs scored on Bartkin.
Aeschilman gave up two earned runs on two hits in one inning of work. Millspaugh surrendered four earned runs on two hits and two walks.
MacWithey told me that he wrote one thing on the board this week for his team to remember. It’s something he heard from a keynote speaker at a commencement ceremony for one of his engineering students. He said it stuck with him heading into the state tournament.
“Failure is not the end unless you accept it.”
