An Epic Rematch: Lake Belton vs. Melissa, 2025

May 15, 2025

By Tony Adams

The 2024 Class 5A State Semifinal. It was the first state tournament that a Belton Independent School District team had been a part of since the 1994 Belton Tigers Baseball squad claimed the Texas UIL Class 4A State Championship.

Following a 5-3 start to start the 2024 campaign, the Broncos set a school district record with 31 consecutive wins, eclipsing the Belton Tigers’ 29-straight winning streak of 2016. The record was derailed by a come-frombehind win by College Station to even up the Region II Quarterfinal. The two-run, series walk-off home run by Angie DeLeon in the ninth inning of game three propelled the team past the Cougars and knocked off perennial powerhouse Mont Belvieu Barbers Hill in the Region II semifinal in a one-game playoff.

Just when you think the team had overcome adversity, game one of their Region II Final against Montgomery Lake Creek was delayed after taking a 5-0 lead on homers by DeLeon and Haley Hoffman.

While the Broncos were battling the Lions in Mumford on that May 22 evening, West Temple was hit with a pair of devastating tornadoes that left nearly 500 homes and businesses either destroyed or severely damaged. Lake Belton’s graduation, slated for the next night, was delayed to May 29 due to the loss of power at Cadence Bank Center, the school’s graduation venue.

With vengeance, the Broncos picked up the pieces. They returned to Mumford two days later, held on for a 5-4 win and downed the defending Class 5A champions two days later to punch their ticket to Austin.

It was the Melissa Cardinals that ended Lake’s epic journey in 2024 with a 4-0 win on May 31. The Cardinals became the new Class 5A State Champion the next day with an 8-0 win over Harlingen South.

Lake Belton finished their season 40-5, with the bitterest of tastes in their mouths.

The year 2025 arrived, and Lake Belton reset their sights on Austin. The Class 5A No. 4 Broncos started the season 6-0 before an 11-1 loss to Conroe at the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Tournament in College Station shook things up after the opening tourney. Following another four wins and a 9-1 loss to a stout Leander squad, who is battling Comal Smithson Valley in the Region IV Final this week, the Broncos have won 24 straight games, which included a 10-0 through District 16-5A for their fifth consecutive district championship.

The last five wins have come in the new playoff format that the Texas UIL has in place this season: the 5A-D I and 5A-D II tournaments. With Lake’s enrollment, they qualified for the 5A-D I tournament. They opened the playoffs with a 1-0 win over Ennis. In the three games that followed, they dispatched Ennis and West Mesquite by a combined score of 40-2. They then battled Prosper Walnut Grove over seven innings in a one-game, winner-take-all tournament to win 2-1.

Lake has hit .390 and has an on-base percentage of .481 through 36 games. With 317 runs scored, 121 extra base hits, 21 homers and 265 runs batted in, they may not have the power numbers of last season’s team, but they get on base, move up (121 stolen bases), and set up opportunities to cross the plate.

Alexis Ortiz (.527 batting average, .602 on-base percentage, four homers, 44 RBI, 58 hits, 52 runs scored, 15 doubles, 17 stolen bases), Madison Perkins (.520 BA, .600 OBP, 21 RBI, 29 stolen bases), and Maddison Ruiz (.500 BA, .574 OBP, 52 hits, seven homers, 47 RBI) are three of the key cogs of the offensive arsenal for the Broncos.

With Ruiz (20-1, 0.53 ERA, 245 strikeouts, 37 walks) and Natalie Hosch (14-1, 1.98 ERA, 76 strikeouts, 9 walks) combining for a 1.11 earned run average and an opponent’s batting average of .163, the Broncos have provided enough run support, and the pitching staff has backed up the offense just the same.

“This team has battled to get back here. They have put in the work,” Lake Belton head coach Kelsie McEachern. “That loss to Melissa at the state tournament last year put a bad taste in our mouths, and we got back to work.”

At 34-2 and in the Region II Final, it is where Lake needed to be: on the lip of the cup in Region II and awaiting their next opponent to return to the state stage again.

Now returning to the main stage: You guessed it. The Melissa Cardinals.

Melissa’s freight train of a season has been a national story. The Cardinals are the reigning 2024 Class 5A State Champion, this season’s number one team in Class 5A, in both the Texas Girls’ Coaches Association Top 25 poll and in MaxPreps National 25 poll. The Cardinals are on a 48-game win streak going back to an 8-1 loss to Lucas Lovejoy on March 28, 2024.

The closest ANY team has come to defeating Melissa this season: Waco Midway, who took the Cardinals to an extra inning before falling 1-0.

So far in the playoffs, Melissa is 5-0 having outscored their opponents 64-3.

They set a national record 106 home runs in 33 games, eclipsing the former mark of 105 homers in 39 games set by the North DeSoto Griffins out of Stonewall, La. They exited the Midlothian series with 112 round trippers in 34 games.

The Cardinals have scored 445 runs this season while having allowed 30 through 34 games. Lake’s last opponent, Walnut Grove, scored seven of the 30 runs against Melissa, the only runs the Cardinals allowed in District 9-5A play.

Kennedy Bradley (23 HR, 53 RBI), Finlee Williams (17 HR, 55 RBI), Caigan Crabtree (17 HR, 53 RBI), Hutton Lulu Adrian (16 HR, 55 RBI), Paisley Needham (11 HR, 56 RBI), and Izzy Gonzales (10 HR, 51 RBI) all had double-digit homers and 50-plus runs batted in for the Cardinals.

While the Cardinals’ offense garners the headlines, their pitching holds down the fort. With a team earned run average

of 1.24 over 158 1/3 innings, Eloisa Maes (27-0, 1.17 ERA, 199 strikeouts, 24 walks) and Makenna Ramsey (6-0, 1.49 ERA, 11 saves, 46 strikeouts, 15 walks) are a duo that does not need a great deal of run support to get the job done.

While this may look like a mismatch on paper, anything can happen and that is why the games are played on the field.

“No matter who we face, we will fight, and we will battle,” McEachern said. “We will be ready.”

Game one of the series will be on Wednesday in Alvarado at 7 pm. Game two will be in Cleburne at 7 pm. If a game three is needed, it will be played in Alvarado at 1 pm.