April 28, 2026
Lake and Sumter High School Baseball Gears Up for FHSAA Regional Semifinals
By Kyle Coppola
Lake and Sumter High School Baseball Gears Up for FHSAA Regional Semifinals
Six of our local high school baseball teams remain alive in the FHSAA state playoffs and will compete in the Regional Semifinals this weekend.
The squads include Mount Dora Christian Academy, Lake Minneola High, Eustis High, South Sumter High and The Villages all represent a strong contingent from the area as they battle in best-of-three series for a chance to reach the regional finals.
Regional semifinals are scheduled for Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2, with Game 1 typically on Friday and Games 2 and 3 (if necessary) on Saturday as a doubleheader.
Class 1A:
Mount Dora Christian Academy Mount Dora Christian Academy enters as the number 2 seed in its Class 1A regional bracket after advancing with a strong quarterfinal performance in a 20-0 win against St. John Lutheran. The Bulldogs will face St. Francis Catholic Academy in the regional semifinals. Mount Dora Christian Academy will look to leverage home-field advantage hosting to push deeper into the postseason. Britton Wise, Jacob Hair have been great pitching and at the plate this year while. Weston Barrett, Eli Feld and company have been stellar all season. The Bulldogs will look to get back to the FHSAA Regional Finals once more.
Class 6A:
Lake Minneola High Lake Minneola High advanced with a convincing 12-5 quarterfinal victory over Dwyer. As the No. 2 seed, the Hawks now face a tough test in the semifinals against Melbourne High. Lake Minneola High will rely on the arms of Chase Daugherty, Maddux Bultema and Dylan Montrowl. Meanwhile it’s been hard to stop Fabian Antonsanti and Colson May who each have above .460 averages coming in the playoffs.
Class 4A:
Eustis High Eustis High, seeded No. 2 in its region, squares off against No. 3 Vanguard High in the regional semifinals. The Panthers have earned the right to host and will look to capitalize on home advantage in the best-of-three format as they chase a spot in the regional finals.
Eustis comes in with Braeden Barns absolutely slinging it on the mound this year entering with 110 strikeouts. But it’s been the hot bat of freshman Tyler Heine who’s batting .397 along with sophomore Ethan Jackson with a .342 average who has Eustis in position for a potential berth in the Regional Finals.
Mount Dora High – The Hurricanes who are the No. 5 seed in the region pulled a first round stunning upset against Lake Wales beating the No. 4 seed 14-3 and convincingly moving on to the next round where Mount Dora will play No. 1 seed Bishop Moore High.
While Bishop Moore has the advantage on paper don’t count the Canes out especially the way they are playing lately. Jack Irwin and Ethan McLain have been pitching and batting well as of late. Mount Dora will need another spirited performance like they had against Lake Wales as they hope to stun the Hornets this weekend.
Class 3A:
Sumter County features two representatives with South Sumter High and The Villages.
South Sumter High, the No. 4 seed, advanced 12-0 past Palatka and will take on No. 1 North Marion High in a challenging regional semifinal. The Raiders will need sharp pitching and timely hitting to advance as North Marion has been difficult to hit off of much of the year.
But South Sumter has some of the best hitters in Florida it’s Ismael Rodriguez, Bubba Boone and Marcelo Moreno all having above .415 averages. If South Sumter can get the bats going early, it will allow Jackson Gill, Jeffery Myers and Tyson Lake to go to work on the mound.
This matchup could also turn into an all out slug fest at the plate as both teams come in with some of the top hitters in Florida. This is going to be one of most anticipated matchups of the post season you won’t want to miss.
The Villages, seeded No. 7, face the formidable No. 3 Hernando High. The Villages pulled a first round upset against Nature Coast Tech winning 8-2. The Buffalo will look to keep the momentum going from that win into the series this weekend.
Konnor Briggs has thrown 81 strikeouts this year while Corey Swetnam, Pedro Roldan Jackson Holmes and Nolan Huffman have provided great support on the mound.
Chase Dasher, Travis Rima and Cam Russ have provided offensive firepower for the Buffalo. They’ll need to bring it against a very stout Hernando team who are coming off a 6-1 win which knocked out Umatilla High.
These six programs continue to highlight the depth of baseball talent across Lake and Sumter counties this spring.
A successful weekend would send any of them to the FHSAA Regional Final Series with the ultimate goal of reaching the FHSAA State Championship World Series at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers later in May.
Good luck to all our local teams! Let us know who you’re rooting on in the comments below.
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
