Tuesday, July 21

HOUSTON – When Astros first-round pick Logan Hughes came to Daikin Park in June for a pre-Draft workout, he had a story to tell Jeff Bagwell, the Hall of Fame first baseman and the club’s senior advisor to ownership and baseball operations.

Hughes told Bagwell they had met many years earlier, when the Astros still held Spring Training at Osceola County Stadium in Kissimmee, Fla. In fact, Hughes had pictures taken with Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Lance Berkman and other Astros players when Hughes was just a toddler and was accompanying his mother on the field to sing the national anthem.

Melissa Hughes frequently sang the "The Star-Spangled Banner" prior to Astros’ Grapefruit League games in Kissimmee for 14 seasons, right up until the team left the complex in 2016 (they moved to West Palm Beach, Fla., in ’17). Logan even did the “Play Ball!” chant to the crowd before a game. The Hughes family lives in Deland, Fla., which is about an hour away from Kissimmee in the Orlando area.

“I was a baby running around,” Logan said. “I got pictures with Biggio, Berkman. We had one with Bagwell and we can’t find it, which sucks. We have pictures with all those guys. I idolized Bagwell growing up and now getting to work with him is amazing. I’m excited for it.”

The Astros took Hughes with the 17th overall pick in this year’s MLB Draft out of Texas Tech. It was a full-circle moment for Melissa, who has been an Astros fan all her life. Logan and his parents will be in Houston later this week for the contract signing.

“I think deep down I was hoping the Astros were going to pick him, but we were kind of unsure,” she said. “It was pretty exciting for me, not just for him getting drafted but just being drafted by the Astros because I had a personal relationship with the team and was a fan growing up.”

Melissa’s father worked for the parks and recreation department in the area and would volunteer his daughter to sing before various sporting events. She eventually was recruited to sing at the Mascot Games at Stetson University when she was in high school, which is where someone from Osceola County Stadium noticed her.

“I sang there and the right person heard me, and it just kind of went from there,” said Melissa, who sang in the church choir and Stetson University Children’s Choir growing up. “I never sang professionally. I just volunteered mostly in our community.”

Logan Hughes, a left-handed hitter, batted .375 with 18 home runs and 71 RBIs last season at Texas Tech and showed good plate discipline with 50 walks and only 33 strikeouts. He can play the corner outfield spots, but also plays first base. He wowed the Astros with his power at the workout at Daikin Park.

“The bat is the big [tool],” Hughes said. “I had more power than they realized in the workout, putting balls in the second deck. They were impressed by that. The GM came out when I was at Baylor and I went lefty-lefty [homer] into the river [the Brazos River sits behind right field at Baylor’s ballpark]. They liked it when I played first base and showed off some first-base skills there. Maybe they thought I was a little bit better defensively than they realized.”

The Astros viewed Hughes as one of the best bats in the Draft and were happy when he fell to them at the 17th spot. Astros amateur scouting director Cam Pendino said he is a special blend of high-quality contact and controlling the strike zone. He could move quickly through the Houston system.

And who knows? Perhaps Melissa may get another chance to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" with her son on the field.

“I would never say never,” she said. “I think it would be pretty emotional with my son on the field. I’d have to get back to practicing and see if I can still do it.”

For the second year in a row, Daikin Park will play host to Light Up the Park, featuring a winding path of holiday lights and music that takes guests through the stadium concourse, down to the service level and finishes with a stroll across the field. The event runs Dec. 4, 2026-Jan. 3, 2027.

The experience includes Astros and Houston-themed light displays, adding a local flair to the atmosphere. Fans also get the opportunity to walk the bases at Daikin Park and photo opportunities with Orbit and Santa. For more details and to purchase tickets, click here. 

On Sunday, Double-A Corpus Christi second baseman Yamal Encarnación became the first Hooks player since 2024 to have a five-hit game, which he did from the leadoff spot in a 4-3 win at San Antonio.

Encarnación tripled in the first before recording singles in each of his remaining plate appearances. The switching-hitting speedster accounted for three of the four Hooks runs, scoring twice while driving in another. Encarnación, 22, leads all Astros prospects and the Texas League with 40 stolen bases in 79 games.

July 19-23, 1986

The Astros set a Major League record with five consecutive walk-off wins in the Astrodome – two against the Mets and all three in a sweep of the Expos, including walk-off homers by Craig Reynolds (July 19) and Glenn Davis (July 22). They were part of a seven-game winning streak that took the Astros from two games down in the National League West to three games up. The Astros went on to win the NL West and lost to the Mets in an epic National League Championship Series.  

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