Class 3A regional final matches top-ranked Liberty-Eylau vs. No. 2 Gunter

By Rick Thomas

NEVADA, Texas — On paper, the Liberty-Eylau Leopards and Gunter Tigers regional baseball playoff series match two of the best baseball teams in the Lone Star State.

The Class 3A, Division 1 final pits the No. 1 Leopards against the second-ranked Tigers.

Both teams sport some of the best records, Liberty-Eylau (32-4) and Gunter (35-2), regardless of classification.

Both are powerhouses, the Leopards having won the Class 4A State Championship last season while Gunter is making its third straight regional final appearance in Class 3A. The Tigers’ last state baseball crown was 24 years ago.

Both teams had long winning streaks this season, with Gunter taking 27 straight and Liberty-Eylau 23 in a row.

Some coaches believe this best-of-three series is for the mythical State Championship, although the winner would still have two games remaining in the chase for the coveted championship.

“Even if we beat Gunter, that doesn’t mean we’re going to be state champs,” said Leopards’ head baseball coach Zack Fowler. “Don’t get me wrong, this is a big series for us, but three other teams will have a shot at the state title, too.

“We’ve got to take care of our business, play our best baseball, and not worry about records and rankings.”

The other regional finals include Iowa Park (24-7) vs. Holliday (18-10-2) in Region 1; Liberty-Eylau vs. Gunter in Region 2; Huntington (28-7-1) vs. Whitney (17-10) in Region 3; and Falfurrias (24-11-2) vs. Corpus Christi London (34-7) in Region 4. The Region 1-2 winners and Region 3-4 winners will collide in the semifinals.

Still, Fowler acknowledges this series is a “big one. Anytime you’ve advanced this far in the state playoffs, you’ve got to have an outstanding team.

“Our entire focus is on playing and beating Gunter. All the other stuff is secondary to our goal of winning another State Championship.”

The series will be played on Friday and Saturday at Community High School in Nevada, which is located about 20 miles northeast of Garland, Texas, and 36 miles northeast of downtown Dallas.

“It’s about a 2-hour and 15-minute drive from Texarkana,” Fowler said. “We hope to have a lot of our fans supporting us at the game, but our fans can also watch us live on Texarkana Gameday.”

Game 1 is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Friday and Game 2 at 3 p.m. Saturday. If a Game 3 is necessary, it will be played following a 30-minute break after Game 2.

This is the first year in Texas that the baseball playoffs are being separated into two divisions in Classes 2A-6A, like the state football playoffs. L-E and Gunter are competing in Division 1 (big school).

The Tigers, who have won three straight 3A football crowns, eliminated a Northeast Texas team, Hughes Springs, two games to one in the regional semifinals last week.

The Mustangs, who finished second to District 13-3A champion New Diana, won the series opener, 6-5, before Gunter rebounded to take the next two games and the series, 8-5 and 13-6.

Gunter, which is a part of the Sherman-Denison metropolitan area, is led by four seniors and a sophomore.

The senior standouts are Brock Boddie (shortstop), who is hitting .361 with 51 runs scored; Jarrett Waggoner (pitcher-outfielder), who is the Tigers’ left-handed ace with a 12-0 record; Jordan Villagrana (pitcher); and Cam Doty (pitcher-outfielder), .507 on-base percentage and 26 runs scored.

Sophomore Jake Ivey (pitcher-first baseman) is 8-1 on the mound.

“We do have a senior core,” Gunter baseball coach Daryl Hellman said. “We have guys who have been playing baseball since they could walk.”

Liberty-Eylau won the Class 4A state crown last year, beating Corpus Christi Calallen, 3-1, at the University of Texas’ Disch-Falk Field in Austin. It was the second straight championship game appearance for L-E, which lost a heartbreaking, 12-inning 3-2 decision to China Spring two seasons ago, also at Disch-Falk. 

The Leopards won their first state baseball title in 2006, a 2-1 victory over Falfurrias, with Fowler being the left-handed winning pitcher (5 innings, 4 hits, 6 strikeouts, 1 walk) and game MVP. Fowler and former Major Leaguer Will Middlebrooks both had two hits in the game, with Middlebrooks’ being a double. Both made the all-state tournament team.

Fowler’s father, Rick Fowler, was the Liberty-Eylau coach that season.

Gunter has captured six state baseball championships, the last coming in 2001 in Class 2A. The Tigers won three out of four state titles from 1997-2001. They also won a pair of Class A crowns in 1991 and 1994.

This year’s Class 3A, Division 1 state final will be played at 7 p.m. on June 5 (Thursday) at Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas, which is the home of the Round Rock Express, the Texas Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate.

If both teams reach the finals, Liberty-Eylau could have a rematch against Falfurrias, the team the Leopards beat for their first state Class 3A baseball trophy in 2006.

Freelance writer Rick Thomas has worked for five major newspapers during his 40-plus-year career. Those papers include the Texarkana Gazette, Longview News-Journal, Shreveport Times, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and Memphis Commercial Appeal.