El Rey: Ivan Melendez breaks Texas' single-season home run record

When looking at Texas’ record books, names of some of the best players in collegiate baseball history dot the pages. Legends like Spike Owen, Bill Bates, Calvin Murray, Huston Street, Bobby Layne, Kyle Russell, Greg Swindell, Brooks Kieschnick, and Keith Moreland set lofty standards for burnt orange and white baseball. On Sunday, a new name joined their ranks. Ivan Melendez slugged his 29th homer of the season in the 1st inning of the Longhorns’ contest versus Oklahoma, eclipsing the previous record set by Russell in 2007.

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“It would mean everything to me just knowing how many prestigious baseball players have played for this program,” Melendez said about the record recently.

Melendez, who transferred to Texas from Odessa College, was forecasted to be a mainstay of the Texas offense in 2022 after a strong debut season in 2021 as the designated hitter. Imagining a campaign like the current one, a campaign that has him in contention for the Golden Spikes Award, was imagining something beyond all expectation

“He’s a special player,” Texas head coach David Pierce prior to the final regular season series. “I haven’t seen too many seasons right now, and right now, he may surpass the great seasons that I’ve seen and been a part of day in and day out. He’s got a chance to surpass those guys as well. He’s a fun kid. He’s humble. He appreciates where he is, and I’m just glad he’s on our team doing it for us and we’re not having to try to get him out.”

From the very first series of the season versus the Rice Owls, Melendez has been a menace at the plate rarely seen in college baseball. His 28 homers rank first in the country, and have him on the cusp of breaking the BBCOR bat era home run record of 31 set by Kris Bryant in 2013. He boasts a .415 batting average, good for second in the country. He’s second nationally in RBI and third in on-base percentage.

Not only does he lead the nation in slugging percentage, entering the weekend with a .927 mark, he leads by over 75 points. Even with the numbers, and the countless accolades he’s accumulated throughout the year, Melendez is coy in the face of history.

“I don’t like spotlighting myself,” Melendez said. “I just want to win, go deep in the playoffs, hopefully win a national championship, and go from there. I think it would be great to have, but I want to go deep in the playoffs.”

The NCAA tournament remains ahead of the Longhorns, which makes Melendez’s mark even more impressive. Russell’s 28-homer season lasted to the final game of the regional round. Other names Melendez passed to reach the mark, like Kody Clemens and Jeff Ontaveros, had their seasons last until the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.

Melendez hit 28 of his homers during the bounds of the regular season, and college baseball counts conference and NCAA tournament stats as regular season stats. The further Texas goes, the more likely Melendez is to approach and even break Bryant’s record.

Breaking a Texas record entails playing most games at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, a ballpark never considered to be hitter-friendly. Though the dimensions and ground rules have been slightly altered since Russell’s 2007 season, the combination of the still-cavernous dimensions and the weakened bats make hitting the ball out of the Disch a tough task.

Yet Melendez has done it with ease. He’s cleared the batter’s eye in straightaway center a number of times. He’s launched balls that would leave any ballpark in the country. Though he’s been successful at his home park, he’s found success away from home, too.

Melendez is no one-trick pony at the plate. His numbers have him in reasonable proximity of winning college baseball’s Triple Crown. Teams shift on him, inexplicably, and he calmly bats the ball the other way. He’s a complete hitter at a school without great notoriety for players who can hit for power and average.

The longball is fun for all involved, and no Longhorn has delivered more home runs in a season than Melendez. His name now is at the top of the record books alongside other legends thanks to his efforts to repeatedly leave the park.