Liberty-Eylau Leopards baseball is honored before the Texas Rangers game at Globe Life Field

ARLINGTON, Texas (KTAL/KMSS) – The Liberty-Eylau baseball team was honored Wednesday evening prior to the Texas Rangers’ game against the New York Mets.

The Leopards won the UIL 4A State Championship, the Rangers invited all of the state championship winning teams to take the field at Globe Life Field and be honored during a pregame celebration.

“The real fun was seeing our guys looking around, some of them want to play here one day,” Liberty-Eylau head coach Zach Fowler said. “It was really cool to get outside and see them enjoying the environment.”

“For a second I didn’t think it was real, I saw Corey Seager and Marcus Semien 50 feet away warming up. That’s honestly insane,” Leopards middle infielder Triston Haugh said. “If you had told me in February that we would be here celebrating a state championship at Globe Life Field in centerfield, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

“When you walk through that outfield and look at all the fans, it feels surreal,” said Liberty-Eylau, third baseman, Britain Pipes.

“They’re my favorite team, so it was pretty cool to be on the field where they play,” said senior Cam Gamble.

Since hoisting the state championship trophy on Thursday, June 6, the Leopards have been something of a rock star in the Texarkana community.

“Everywhere I go people congratulate me,” Haugh said. “I will always be remembered in Texarkana as a state champion and that’s pretty cool.”

“The community has been so supportive, everywhere you go people are shouting out state champions or congratulating them,” Fowler said. “It was just amazing.”

Taking the field before their favorite professional baseball team played was an experience of a lifetime, and now the underclassmen plan to use the experience as motivation to get back to the state championship game.

“A few of them are under the impression that we want to do this every year,” Fowler said. “Definitely something I can bring up all year long: If you want to go back (to Globe Life Field), you have to win.”

“That’s what you want to do, you want to play in the state championship every year, that’s what you’ve done your job for,” Haugh said. “We want to do this again next year.”