APOPKA, Fla.---

Apopka baseball has a proud history.  The greats of the past are painted on the dugout.  Rodney Brewer, Zack Greinke, Brett King, and J.T. Wise last names’ and numbers are displayed with pride.  The school’s future is currently at the plate.

“End on it,” senior centerfielder Matthew Prevesk says as he finishes batting practice with a deep shot to right. 

The lefty dreams of having his name enshrined one day too.  Even if people used to have trouble pronouncing it.

“We were in the outfield when I was a freshman on varsity,” Prevesk remembers.  “They didn’t know how to say my last name, they didn’t know how to say Prevesk.  So one kid was like ‘Preveski?’ and then one of the other kids was just like let’s call him Pepsi.”

His teammates now have been playing with him most of their life so you don’t hear “Pepsi” thrown around too much at practice anymore, but you will find it written underneath the brim of his cap. MLB scouts have made sure to learn his name too.

“We pretty much get scouts at just about every game so far,” Apopka head coach Bobby Brewer said.

Brewer knows greatness when he sees it.  His brother Rodney is one of the names immortalized on the wall.  

“He’s a leader as far as the way he performs, the other people on the team they just kind of migrate to that,” Brewer said about Prevesk.

The MLB draft is real possibility for Matthew this year, but signed to play for the University of Florida in November.  

“It was really cool, I was actually nervous too because I didn’t know if I was going to mess up or not,” Prevesk said about signing day.  “But that’s just part of being a kid you know, learning to grow up and actually realizing that you’re going to college.”

Scouts at games and practice took some getting used to, but Prevesk has the support of his family and an advisor giving him advice.

 “I mainly want to go to Florida, but if a [MLB] team really wants me and has a good option of money I’ll probably decide that,” Prevesk said.

For now “Pepsi” is drinking in the rest of his senior year.  He has one more goal left to accomplish before he moves on to bigger better things.

“Definitely a state championship,” Prevesk said.  “That’s one thing. We’ve never won one here, and that’s one thing I want accomplish before I leave.”