Melissa routs Harlingen South to win 5A state championship, ending Dallas-area drought

AUSTIN — Michigan State pledge Alex Starr didn’t get the start in the biggest softball game in Melissa history.

But the junior ace pitcher didn’t get dejected or sulk. She warmed up in the bullpen while her team was hitting and made sure she was ready when called upon in the most critical moment of Saturday’s Class 5A state championship game.

After freshman pitcher Eloisa Maes walked three batters in the bottom of the second to load the bases with two outs and Melissa clinging to a 2-0 lead, Starr came on in relief and got a strikeout to end the threat without any damage. Starr escaped another jam unscathed in the third, recording another inning-ending strikeout to strand runners at first and third.

Photos: Winners! Melissa wins 5A state softball championship

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“I didn’t get down at all,” Starr said. “Eloisa is a great pitcher, and she had it. It was pretty hard [in the second inning], but I just reminded myself I need to focus and I took deep breaths and it calmed me down.”

Those were the only stressful moments for Melissa thanks to a monstrous display of power by Texas pledge Caigan Crabtree, the team’s superstar junior shortstop.

At the state tournament for the first time, Melissa used a dominant performance from Starr and two home runs from Crabtree to rout Harlingen South 8-0 at UT’s Red & Charline McCombs Field. When Crabtree made a diving catch on a popup for the final out, a dogpile ensued in the infield.

It was just the second state title in a team sport in Melissa history. The football team won state in 2011.

“It’s such an amazing feeling,” Crabtree said. “Playing on my soon-to-be-field [at UT], it’s just surreal and it’s a dream come true.”

Melissa won the first UIL softball state title by a Dallas-area team since Forney captured the 5A championship in 2018. D-FW teams were 0-3 in state finals from 2019 to 2023 after winning five titles from 2016 to 2018.

Melissa may just be starting a dynasty. It started five freshmen Saturday, and the only senior starter was center fielder Emily Johnson, who scored three runs from the leadoff spot.

Melissa (38-2-1) broke the game open in the top of the fifth, as sophomore Kennedy Bradley just missed a home run on an RBI double that hit the top of the wall and then Crabtree crushed a two-run homer over the left-field fence that is 200 feet away to make it 7-0. Crabtree added a long solo homer in the seventh — her 21st of the season — and that gave Melissa 92 home runs on the year, adding to its state-record total that is second-most in national history, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

“I don’t have a home run mentality, but when I see a pitch I can drive, I’m pretty prepared,” Crabtree said.

Crabtree had four RBIs on Saturday and was named the game’s MVP, and her six RBIs for the tournament are a new record for the UIL’s second-largest classification. She became the sixth player in UIL history to hit two home runs in an entire state tournament, and the first to do that in 5A. She got to celebrate with her mother, Melissa head coach Cassie Crabtree.

“It’s so special,” Melissa’s coach said. “It’s a memory that will last forever, that we’ve talked about and dreamed about forever. She has been watching me coach for 15 or 16 years. To do it with her for the first time, it’s a remarkable feeling.”

Melissa became the second 5A team to hit two home runs in a state tournament game, with Aledo accomplishing that against Georgetown in 2021.

Melissa started Maes instead of Starr, who was 28-1 with a 0.99 ERA after pitching a three-hit shutout against Lake Belton in Friday’s semifinal. Maes came into Saturday with a 9-0 record and 1.32 ERA, and she showed no fear in retiring the side in order in the first against a Harlingen South offense that was averaging 10 runs per game and had gotten a combined 35 home runs from Yezenia Perez and Washington pledge Amira Rodriguez.

Starr took over from there, allowing four hits and striking out six while pitching 5 1/3 scoreless innings. Melissa ended the season on a 15-game winning streak and allowed more than one run just two times in that span.

“Eloisa has been huge for us,” Cassie Crabtree said. “Her combination of pitches I thought was going to be very, very effective, and it was. We just couldn’t find the strike zone. I just needed some outs. Starr is a competitor, and I felt like the change needed to be made.”

It is a good time to be an athlete in Melissa, a booming suburb 40 miles north of Dallas. Melissa was a 2A school when it won state in football in 2011, but it has seen its enrollment more than triple in the last decade, reaching 1,762.5 for the UIL’s biennial realignment in February.

Melissa ISD’s $21.3 million, state-of-the-art indoor athletic facility — said to be the biggest of its kind in Texas — opened in 2021. The district garnered national attention when it opened a $35 million, 10,000-seat football stadium in 2023, joining the arms race in Texas that continues to produce high-dollar high-school stadiums that rival college and professional football teams.

Melissa, ranked No. 14 in the nation by MaxPreps, was the bright spot in an otherwise rough two weeks for nationally ranked Texas teams. Then No. 1-Katy lost in last week’s regional finals, No. 10 Denton Guyer and No. 16 Humble Kingwood lost in separate 6A state semifinals Friday and No. 21 Liberty lost 2-1 to Corpus Christi Calallen in Saturday morning’s 4A state championship game.

Melissa didn’t need the long ball to take a quick 2-0 lead — just contributions from three freshmen. Hutton “LuLu” Adrian had an RBI groundout in the top of the first, then Rihanna Wheeler hit an RBI double that scored Amariee Bradford in the second.

Johnson walked to lead off the third and scored on a groundout by Crabtree. Adrian followed with a sacrifice fly to score Bradley, extending Melissa’s lead to 4-0.

Harlingen South (36-5) was at state for the first time after advancing past the second round for the first time since 2019. It beat three-time state champion Aledo 1-0 in Friday’s semifinal despite getting just one hit.

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