As playoff time is near for the Apopka baseball team, The Blue and White revisits our boys in blue on the diamond for one last time. The boys are on a roll this season, having only lost three games out of the twenty-three played. With their three losses coming from district rival West Orange losing only by one run, and two Non-district opponents Winter Park and Osceola High School. Last year the season was ended abruptly by COVID-19, so this year the team has unfinished business to take care of, as they want to win the district tournament and make a deep run in the playoffs. Before they can focus on that, they will have to take care of the last two games of the regular season against Seminole and Ocoee High School. The Blue and White heard from head coach Bobby Brewer, Senior Matthew Prevesk who has signed to play baseball at the University of Florida, and Ty Greene, a senior who is leading the team in RBI’s (run batter in) with a total of twenty-nine. All three of them tell us how they feel the season has been thus far in their personal experiences and that they are glad to be back on the baseball diamond after all that happened over the past year.

First, we heard from the head coach Bobby Brewer, who expressed to The Blue and White that he is so grateful that his guys are able to play so many games this year because everything has been in limbo ever since COVID-19 came about. When asked about the most memorable moment of the season, he said, “I would have to say the first game of the season, because after last year I was not sure how many more games we would be playing it felt good to be back on the ball field.”  With baseball being a spring sport it took the biggest hit from the pandemic, due to the fact that they did not even get to play at all. Some schools may have got in a couple of pre-season games in, but as for playing a real high school game the boys in blue went an entire year without playing a regular-season game. Crazy times…in spite of all the madness Coach Brewer is pleased with the way things are going this season and feels his guys have all developed into their specific roles on the team. As for making a run in the playoffs, he said, “Hopefully, we play loose and have some fun but be focused on our task ahead.”

The Blue and White heard from Ty Greene next, Ty plays third base, and also pitches. He has been playing varsity baseball since his freshman year of high school, seeing the program through its highs and lows, and was able to give The Blue and White his personal account of this COVID year with baseball. He said, “This season has pretty much been the same as usual. We haven’t experienced any positive tests. The only thing different is the masks.”  Ty goes on to speak about the challenge of having a lot of new guys on the varsity team this year, with only a handful of returners. He explained, “A lot of new guys made varsity as the season goes on they’ve started to get more comfortable and get adjusted better, we’ve really got the chemistry we needed.” When answering our final question on his favorite memory of the season, he said, “When Matt won a bet with coach Brewer and he had to run ten poles.”

Lastly, we heard from Matt Prevesk, who has also been playing on the baseball team since his freshman year. Although he has signed with the University of Florida, he may have a chance of playing in the MLB right out of high school. It has been a long journey for Matt through this whole COVID ordeal, but he feels that just finishing off his high school baseball career with his guys will mean more to him than anything else. Explaining his view on the season thus far, he said, “I’ve seen a big improvement in the team. When it comes to big-time plays and big hits when we need them overall our development has grown from the beginning of the season.” With the final two games of the season coming up Matt wants to end the season on a good note, feeling that this can be the best team to make a deep playoff run in some years at Apopka. He said, “I believe we will make a good run because of the competitiveness we have as a team and the skills we have as a team also.”  HOKA HEY from the baseball diamond!