FIU baseball coach Mervyl Melendez got a thrill of a lifetime this weekend.
After FIU lost to South Dakota State 4-3 in Port Charlotte on Saturday, Melendez flew to Arizona, where his son — Kansas City Royals catching prospect — M.J. Melendez — made his debut in a major-league spring training game Sunday.
On his first at-bat, Melendez, 20, pulled a pitch down the right-field line that nearly went for a two-run double.
“It was an inch from being fair,” Melendez said of his son, who was drafted in the second round in 2017. M.J. went 0 for 2 with a walk in his debut.