On Friday, Line Drive released the Top 10 of the 2027 HOT Rankings and one of those honored was Nia Melendez, a talented corner infielder who is the oldest of four girls in the family.

The other three are Nylah, a 2028 grad ranked by Line Drive at No. 4 in her class (and the top catcher), Naima, a 2029 grad and Nevaeh, age 2.

Naima, ranked No. 20 in the Line Drive 2029 HOT 100 which was released in April of ’25, is a freshman at Hart (Newhall, Calif.) High and plays travel ball with the USA Athletics RML 16U team next years.

The siblings’ father, Luis Melendez says of his middle daughter:

“Naima excels in her studies and loves spending time with her family but especially with her youngest sister, Nevaeh.”

Here, in her own words, are how Naimi enjoyed a wonderful summer experience in softball and helping her national team do something that had never been done before…

*****

This summer I went to Italy to compete in the U15 WBSC World Classic for team Puerto Rico with my sister Nylah Melendez.

Throughout my journey in Italy, I learned countless lessons about how to overcome my mental game. My biggest lesson I learned through the World Classic was how not to let errors ruin my game.

In March, I competed in Mexico for the U15 WBSC Qualifier.

During the tournament, we played Team USA, which was undefeated and defending U15 World Champions. This game was huge for Team Puerto Rico because we had never beaten USA in the history of WBSC softball.

Coming into the game. I felt intimidated and this feeling subconsciously brought my confidence down. During the first inning of the game, I came up to bat with bases loaded with two outs. In this moment I was feeling the pressure that I needed to get a hit to get the go-ahead run for my team.

The feeling of pressure led me to go for the first pitch (not the best pitch) and I grounded out to the shortstop for the third out.

After my at-bat, I felt very down and I started to doubt my game and this feeling carried over to my fielding. During the game, I played third base and I made two errors that impacted the game negatively.

The biggest reason why I made the errors was because I didn’t know how to let my prior at-bats and errors go. We lost the game in a close score of 3-2. After the game, I felt at my lowest in my entire softball career.

I felt like I lost the game for the team and let everyone down.

When I got back home from Mexico, I knew I had to get back to work and especially improve my mental game. I had many long talks with my mom about the USA game. During this talk, we talked about how I can switch my mental approach and prepare myself for the USA game in Italy.

When the time came to play Team USA in Italy, both teams were fighting to advance to the Gold Medal game against Team Japan.

I wasn’t nervous to play USA this time because I knew I was prepared after all the work I did with my physical and mental game. I wanted to do anything to make sure that we beat Team USA.

I remember in the bottom of the third inning, we were up 2-0 and you could start to feel the pressure USA was feeling. A quick slapper came up to bat with zero outs. I knew there was a high chance that this batter was going to bunt.

Before the pitch came I saw the batter’s hands move to bunt, I ran in and I saw the ball go up in the air, I sprinted towards the ball and dove for the catch. By the end of the game, I had one hit, one RBI, and a diving catch.

Team Puerto Rico won this game 4-0 and we advanced to the championship game. This was also the first time Puerto Rico had beaten Team USA in WBSC softball history!.

This summer strengthened my mental game in many ways.

Keeping your mistakes in the past but learning from them is the biggest lesson I learned.

I am grateful to play softball for teaching me life lessons I will carry for the rest of my life.

— Naima Melendez for Line Drive Softball