Two Dallas-area softball teams will head to Austin this week for a chance to compete for a UIL state title.
Here are two storylines and five players to watch as Denton Guyer and Melissa look to capture state championships.
Top storylines
Melissa’s fab freshmen
In reaching the UIL softball state tournament for the first time in school history, Melissa is starting four freshmen in its batting order, and another freshman is undefeated as a pitcher. One of those freshmen is now the greatest power hitter in Dallas-area history.
Hutton “LuLu” Adrian has hit 22 home runs, breaking the D-FW single-season record of 20 that was set by Allen’s Sami Hood in 2022 and tied by Melissa sophomore Kennedy Bradley this season. Adrian is hitting .518 with 62 RBIs — second on the team behind Bradley’s 63 — and 67% of Adrian’s hits have gone for extra bases.
She is joined in the starting lineup by fellow freshmen Rihanna Wheeler (.342), Isabell Gonzales (.314) and Amariee Bradford (.309), who are all hitting over .300 for an offense that averages 9.5 runs per game. Those three have combined for 20 home runs and 79 RBIs for a 36-2-1 team that has set the state record for most home runs in a season (89) and will play Lake Belton (40-4) in a 5A state semifinal at 10 a.m. Friday at the University of Texas’ Red & Charline McCombs Field in Austin.
And freshman pitcher Eloisa Maes is 9-0 with 10 saves, a 1.33 ERA and 128 strikeouts in 84 innings after pitching a three-hit shutout in a 4-0 win over Forney in the final game of the Class 5A Region II final. She has shared the pitching duties with junior ace Alex Starr, a Michigan State pledge who is 27-1 with a 1.04 ERA and 211 strikeouts in 127 1/3 innings for the nation’s 19th-ranked team (per MaxPreps).
They have a chance to join an elite group of freshmen who have led Dallas-area teams to state titles since 2013. One of those was The Colony’s Jayda Coleman, now an All-American senior outfielder at Oklahoma who helped OU reach its eighth consecutive Women’s College World Series and has OU in position to try to win an unprecedented fourth straight NCAA title this year.
Coleman, who committed to Oklahoma as an eighth-grader and was the nation’s No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2020, led the Dallas area in hits (82), runs (74) and stolen bases (57) and hit .719 with 37 extra-base hits in 40 games in 2017 while helping The Colony win the 5A state title as a freshman shortstop. Despite having half of her senior season canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic, Coleman had a career batting average of .722 and ranked third in national history in career runs (272), fifth in career stolen bases (224) and 11th in career hits (283) when she graduated.
Like Coleman, Lewisville pitcher Maribeth Gorsuch was named The Dallas Morning News All-Area Player of the Year as a freshman after winning a state title. Gorsuch, who went on to pitch at LSU, was 22-4 with a 1.24 ERA and hit .392 with 32 RBIs for Lewisville’s 5A state championship team in 2013, including going 6-0 with a 0.53 ERA in the playoffs despite working her way back from a rib muscle injury.
Pitcher Grace Green, who signed with Texas out of high school, was 21-5 with a 1.42 ERA as a freshman in 2016 while leading Birdville to its first softball state title. And outfielder Amanda DeSario, who started her college career at Texas Tech before going on to play at Tarleton State, led Keller in hits and hit .492 as a freshman in 2016 as Keller won the first of back-to-back 6A state championships.
Guyer star is back at state
Oregon signee Kaylynn Jones from Denton Guyer will be appearing in a state tournament for the fourth time in her career, but only half of those have been in Texas. The star senior second baseman, one of the top recruits in the country, lived in Italy, Japan and California before moving to Denton for the second semester as a junior.
Jones was The Dallas Morning News All-Area Player of the Year last season after leading Guyer to a state runner-up finish in her first season at the school. After reaching state as a freshman and winning it as a sophomore in California, Jones originally wasn’t going to play high school softball last year but changed her mind and helped Guyer reach the state tournament for the first time since 2010.
She hit .540 with 24 extra-base hits, 49 RBIs, 65 runs and 24 stolen bases as a junior for a 38-2 Guyer team that lost 4-2 to Pearland in the 6A state championship game. This year, Jones is hitting .432 with team highs in hits (61), runs (54) and stolen bases (28) for a 37-4 Guyer team that is ranked No. 14 in the nation and will play Weslaco (35-6) in a 6A state semifinal at 4 p.m. Friday.
Players to watch
Caigan Crabtree, Melissa: The Texas pledge will be playing at her future college home when Melissa makes its state tournament debut Friday at UT’s Red & Charline McCombs Field. Crabtree, a junior shortstop, leads Melissa with a .535 batting average and 19 doubles. Her 19 home runs and 55 RBIs are third on the team behind freshman Hutton “LuLu” Adrian (22 home runs, 62 RBIs) and sophomore Kennedy Bradley (20 home runs, 63 RBIs).
Piper Lindlau, Sanger: The senior center fielder/catcher is hitting .345 and leads Sanger in home runs (eight), runs (46) and RBIs (42), according to stats on MaxPreps. Sanger (37-7) is at the state tournament for the first time since winning the 3A championship in 2001, and it will play Corpus Christi Calallen (32-2) in a 4A semifinal at 4 p.m. Thursday.
Clarissa Mejia, Weslaco: Denton Guyer will have to contend with a sophomore catcher who is hitting .417 with seven home runs and 24 RBIs in 12 playoff games. Mejia is 6-for-9 with two home runs and 10 RBIs in the last three games as Weslaco scored 50 runs in that span in a Game 3 regional semifinal win over Austin Lake Travis and a two-game regional final sweep of San Antonio Brennan. Led by Mejia and senior first baseman Elizabeth Craig (.447, three home runs, 18 RBIs in the playoffs), Weslaco has hit 21 home runs and is averaging 10.2 runs per game in the postseason as it advanced to the state tournament for the first time since 2016.
Finley Montgomery, Denton Guyer: The sophomore pitcher is 27-2 with a 1.27 ERA and 203 strikeouts in 181 2/3 innings for a Guyer team that is trying to become the Dallas area’s first UIL softball state champion since Forney in 2018. That came after Montgomery was 22-1 with a 1.67 ERA as a freshman in 2023 for Guyer’s 6A state runner-up team. With Guyer’s season on the line Saturday night, Montgomery pitched a two-hit shutout in an 8-0 win over Keller in the third and deciding game of the 6A Region I final.
Shelby Schultz, Lake Belton: The Tarleton State signee pitched a complete game with 10 strikeouts in a weather-delayed 5-4 Game 1 win over Montgomery Lake Creek in the 5A Region III final that started Wednesday and finished Friday, then didn’t allow a hit in three scoreless innings of relief in a 2-1 victory in Game 2 as Lake Belton advanced to the state tournament for the first time. This was a Lake Creek program that was 84-1 while winning back-to-back 5A state titles in 2022 and 2023. Schultz is 23-3 on the season, but up next is a state semifinal against Melissa, which has a .412 team batting average and is averaging 9.5 runs and 2.3 home runs per game.
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