Navarro graduate Dakota Leopold (seated, third from left) signed a letter of intent to play college baseball at Texas A&M-Texarkana with family members, coaches, and friends present at the NHS baseball field on Thursday. Photo courtesy of Navarro HS Baseball Twitter page
(Geronimo) – Navarro High School graduate Dakota Leopold inked his commitment to play baseball at the collegiate level on Thursday, signing with Texas A&M-Texarkana.
A&M-Texarkana is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and competes in the Red River Athletic Conference with a number of other schools from Texas, Louisiana, and New Mexico.
Leopold was a four-year varsity starter and two-time All-District performer at Navarro, playing his freshman and sophomore seasons under previous head coach Chema Chavez and the last two years under current head coach Kris Cavazos.
As the ace of Navarro’s 2020 pitching staff, Leopold was 3-1 with a 1.61 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 21-2/3 innings before the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Leopold was having a monster season at the plate as well. He led the Panthers in batting average (.564), RBIs (13), stolen bases (6), triples (3), and slugging percentage (.795) through 13 games, and helped the team compile an 8-5 record during that span.
Texas A&M-Texarkana was 18-8 overall, 5-1 in conference play before the rest of the season was cancelled in mid-March. The Eagles have enjoyed a run of success under head coach Steve Jones, qualifying for the NAIA national playoffs in each of his first four full seasons.