COPPELL — With no outs in the top of the third Thursday night, Melissa left fielder Paisley Needham stepped to the plate, having just watched teammate Izzy Gonzales put her team in the record book.
Gonzales crushed a monstrous home run over the high wall in center field that is 215 feet away to give Melissa a share of the national record for most home runs in a season. Needham one-upped her, however, giving Melissa the national record all by itself.
Needham followed Gonzales’ solo home run with one of her own, blasting a line drive over the wall in left field at the Coppell Softball Complex for Melissa’s 106th home run of the season. That surpassed the record of 105 that was set by Stonewall (La.) North DeSoto in 2022, and it propelled Melissa to a 13-1 win over Midlothian in the opening game of a best-of-3 series in the Class 5A Division I Region II semifinals.
“I think it’s just a symbol of all the hard work we have put in,” Needham said. “It wasn’t just one person, we all worked as a team to get here.”
When asked if Melissa players talked much about the shot at the national record ahead of time, Needham laughed and said, ”Oh yes. I think it’s like a secret competition between all of us. We all push each other, and it’s friendly.”
After watching Gonzales go deep, Needham got excited.
“I told my dad yesterday I was going to be the one to break it, so I knew it was my chance, and we are best friends,” Needham said.
After the game, Gonzales and Needham posed for photos while holding their home run balls and plaques with the numbers 105 and 106 on them. That represented the record-tying and record-breaking home runs they hit.
“It’s the most amazing feeling ever as an athlete, just to know how much your hard work has paid off,” Gonzales said.
Melissa added its 107th homer in the top of the fifth as Texas signee Caigan Crabtree hit a moon shot to left leading off the inning to give her team an 11-1 lead.
Melissa, ranked No. 1 in the nation by MaxPreps, broke the record in just its 33rd game of the season. Eloisa Maes and Makenna Ramsey combined to pitch a five-inning no-hitter for Melissa, which is 33-0 this year and has won 48 games in a row going back to last year, when it won the Class 5A state title.
Melissa is averaging 3.2 home runs per game, and the team has hit three or more home runs in 24 games. That included a season-high eight home runs against Greenville and seven against Burleson Centennial.
Melissa nearly tied the national record in the top of the second when Hutton “LuLu” Adrian hit a deep fly ball to left field that at first appeared to have home run distance. But the ball died just in front of the wall and was caught on the warning track to end the inning with Melissa leading 3-0.
Melissa grabbed an early lead with three runs in the top of the first as Gonzales hit a sacrifice fly and Needham hit an RBI single, with a second run scoring on an error at the end of the play. Melissa broke the game open with seven runs in the third, as Gonzales and Needham hit back-to-back homers, Adrian hit a three-run double with the bases loaded and Gonzales added an RBI double for a 10-0 lead against a Midlothian team that had won 10 of its last 11 games.
Gonzales and Needham each have 10 home runs on the season. Florida pledge Kennedy Bradley has hit a team-high 23 home runs, setting a new Dallas-area record for most home runs in a season, and she is followed on Melissa’s home run leaderboard by Finlee Williams (16), Crabtree (16) and Adrian (15).
Melissa has homered in 30 of its 33 games, including each of the last eight. Melissa broke the state record last year when it hit 92 home runs in 41 games while going 38-2-1, and it needed just 28 games to break its own state record this year.
Melissa has outscored the opposition 430-30 and has scored in double figures 25 times while averaging 13 runs per game. Melissa’s average margin of victory is 12.1 runs per game, and only four of its wins were by fewer than five runs.
Melissa, a booming suburb 40 miles north of Dallas, was a 2A school when it won state in football in 2011. It has seen its enrollment more than triple in the last decade, reaching 1,762.5 for the UIL’s biennial realignment in February 2024. That left it a little over 500 students from being a 6A school.
History! See photos of Melissa breaking national home run record in playoff game vs. Midlothian
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