Baseball Recap: Apopka Comes Up Short

After flying high against East River last Friday, Apopka came back down to earth. The Apopka Blue Darters fell just short of the Dr. Phillips Panthers by a score of 5-4 on Tuesday. The Blue Darters were given a dose of their own medicine in this game as the Panthers apparently hadn't forgotten their loss the last time these teams played back in April of 2024.

Maddox Stinson was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only one hit while striking out 12 over 4.2 innings pitched. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in strikeouts.

On the hitting side, Apopka saw three different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Wyatt Jaggers, who went 2-for-3 with one home run, two runs, and two RBI. That's the most hits Jaggers has posted since back in March of 2024.

Apopka's defeat dropped their record down to 7-5. As for Dr. Phillips, the victory was the sixth in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 7-6.

Looking ahead, Apopka will be playing at home against The Villages Charter at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average, (Apopka 2.9, The Villages Charter 1.3) so any runs scored will be well earned. As for Dr. Phillips, they will face off against Lake Brantley at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Both teams are headed into the matchup with plenty of momentum (Lake Brantley has won three straight at home, while Dr. Phillips won four straight on the road), something that'll have to change.