Texas 8 Mississippi State 5: Melendez's heroics cap wild game, force winner-take-all for spot in championship series
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Texas designated hitter Ivan Melendez entered Friday night’s game versus Mississippi State with 12 home runs during the 2021 season. A significant portion of those 12 traveled long distances and usually helped the Longhorns toward a winning effort. However, none of the previous 12 were as significant as his thirteenth.
Facing a full count with two runners on and rain beginning to fall at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha, Melendez belted an offering from Parker Stinnett well clear of the left field wall to retake a three-run lead. Following a 2:27 delay that began shortly after Melendez crossed the plate, Aaron Nixon closed out the bottom of the ninth to seal Texas’ 8-5 win and force a winner-take-all game with MSU to advance to the championship series.
Stinnett began Melendez’ at-bat with three straight balls before finding the zone on a 3-0 count. He then offered a fastball that Melendez just missed for strike two, setting up the full count. Stinnett threw one more fastball to the El Paso power hitter, and it was one too many.
“He obviously wanted to come back to that after a big swing and miss,” Melendez said. “But off the bat it felt pretty good. I knew it was a homer for sure.”
With the knowledge it was leaving the park milliseconds after it left his bat, Melendez flipped his bat in celebration immediately, turned and looked toward the Texas dugout along the first base line, pounded his chest several times, and skipped a few yards toward first base before beginning his trot.
When he got around to home plate, he stomped on the dish for the third run of a three-run shot.
“He absolutely hammered that pitch,” Texas head coach David Pierce said. “He just missed a fastball maybe just a bit higher, and I give Ivan so much credit for just being ready for that pitch and being ready to swing the bat and wanting to be in that situation.”
After Melendez laid off several sliders earlier in the count and following his swing and miss against Stinnett’s fastball on 3-1, he said he knew he was going to get another fastball with the count full. He just needed to make the most of it.
He did that, sending a ball well clear of the left-centerfield fence in expansive TD Ameritrade.
“He did a great job of just having confidence in the box and wanting to help his team win and just did a great job with that,” Pierce said.
Melendez’s home run salvaged what was a disastrous turn of events for the Longhorns. Entering the eighth inning with a 5-2 lead, Tanner Witt faced SEC player of the year Tanner Allen to lead things off. Witt had escaped the seventh, his first inning of work, without issue. The trend would not continue in the eighth.
Witt allowed a double to Allen, who slapped a low off-speed pitch to the opposite field. Witt got the next batter to ground out, but then issued three consecutive walks to make it a 5-3 game.
He was then nearly pulled by Pierce, who visited the mound during Witt’s final at bat. But Witt threw three straight balls, and Pierce had to go to Nixon after the bases loaded walk.
The first pitch Nixon offered was slapped to second base by Brad Cumbest. Mitchell Daly’s diving effort could not come up with it, and two runs scored to tie the game.
“Nobody’s slamming things,” Pierce said. “Nobody’s just frustrated to the point where you feel like you can’t overcome it.”
Those results lead into Melendez’s heroics, but a pause to the back and forth would take place due to Mother Nature after Melendez crossed home. Rain moved into the Omaha area and caused a lengthy delay from 10:39 p.m. to 1:06 a.m.
Pierce sent Nixon back out to finish the game, and after allowing two baserunners, finished the job to force the winner-take-all contest.
“I’ve been in that situation many times,” Pierce said. “I’ve talked to medical teams, I understand it. As long as you’re not in any kind of stress situation, just want to keep your body loose or hot and basically play light catch about every 15, 20 minutes and just keep moving. That’s what he did. He was ready to go. We were good there.”
Witt and Nixon followed another masterful start from Ty Madden. In his no decision, Madden went 6.0 innings allowing four hits, two earned runs, and three walks while striking out eight against a potent State lineup. After the Bulldogs took a 2-1 lead in the first inning, Madden retired 15 of the next 18 batters he faced.
“Ty Madden was Ty Madden,” Pierce said. “He was outstanding.”
Texas took an early lead with a Zach Zubia solo home run in the top of the first. They tied the game at 2-2 in the second with a sacrifice fly from Trey Faltine. One more was plated in the fifth when Mike Antico singled to score one. Antico added another RBI single in the seventh, followed by a Melendez RBI single three batters later.
The delay meant Texas was playing baseball late at night for the second consecutive day. Despite their athleticism and youth, it still is a challenge to make such a quick turnaround.
“It’s definitely exhausting,” Melendez said. “I definitely feel it every time I wake up in the morning. We’ve got to walk down for breakfast. But I just think the crowd and just the energy and all the emotions just have us all amped up.”
They’ll have to beat Mississippi State tomorrow and likely will have to face the two pitchers, Will Bednar and Landon Sims, who fanned them 21 times on Sunday.
It’s a familiar challenge they’re ready to take on once again.
“I believe that our team is playing at a very high level, not only with confidence, but with their skill set,” Pierce said. “I don’t think we’re going to give in at all. I think the game gets back to even now, and we’re going to go out there and compete like we do and see what happens.”
Texas faces MSU on Saturday at 6 p.m.
