Mulvane baseball ends storybook season with 4A state title, first in 40 years
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- Mulvane beat Topeka Hayden 9-4 to win the Class 4A state baseball title.
- Mulvane finished the season with a 28-1 record under head coach Steve Nelson.
- Manny Myers delivered a two-run single and pitched as the game-winning hurler.
The first Mulvane baseball state championship made Steve Nelson fall in love with the program.
The second one made everything come full circle.
Forty years after Nelson served as the bat boy for Mulvane High’s 1986 title team, the former Wildcat player turned head coach led his hometown program back to the top Friday with a 9-4 win over Topeka Hayden in the Class 4A championship game at Tointon Family Stadium.
After needing two straight walk-off wins just to reach the final, Mulvane did not need another late thriller to finish its storybook season. The Wildcats simply played like the 28-1 team they had been all spring — deep, dangerous, resilient and finally crowned again.
Mulvane captured the second state championship in program history, exactly 40 years after the first. For Nelson, a 1993 Mulvane graduate who played for the program after growing up around it, the moment carried the weight of four decades.
He had watched the 1986 team win it all as a kid. He had seen what Mulvane baseball could become. He had spent years trying to guide the Wildcats back to that same stage.
On Friday, he was no longer just the bat boy with a front-row seat to history.
He was the coach at the center of it.
The championship game still had its share of tension, especially early. Hayden erased Mulvane’s first lead with a four-run third inning, then appeared to have a chance to take the lead again in the fourth before a controversial play at the plate flipped the game’s momentum.
But what separated Mulvane was the same thing that had separated the Wildcats all season.
They had stars, yes. KU signee Grey Sanders and Louisville signee Parker Clubb gave Mulvane two of the most talented players in the state. But the Wildcats were not just a star-driven team.
They were too complete for that.
Hagen Warkins, a first-year transfer from Campus, became a major piece in the lineup and on the mound. Grady Myers, Hays Ensley, Manny Myers, Reed Hackleman, Brody Clasen and Hudson Myers gave Mulvane production throughout the order. The pitching staff was just as versatile, with Sanders, Clubb, Warkins and Clasen helping carry the Wildcats through a dominant spring.
By Friday, though, Mulvane had burned through much of its top-end pitching just to survive the state tournament.
Sanders was unavailable after throwing earlier in the week. Warkins and Clubb had both pitched Thursday. Clasen started the championship game.
That left Manny Myers, who had thrown only five innings all season before Friday.
In the biggest game of the year, he became the arm that finished it.
Myers came out of the bullpen and delivered 4 1/3 scoreless innings, holding Hayden to one hit and two walks the rest of the way. After the fourth inning, Hayden managed just one baserunner over the final three frames.
It was the kind of performance that made Mulvane’s championship feel even more fitting.
The Wildcats had spent the season leaning on pitching depth. They won the title because the depth went even deeper than expected.
Mulvane jumped in front before recording a hit.
The Wildcats loaded the bases in the bottom of the first on a walk, hit batter and another hit batter. Hackleman then drew a four-pitch walk to force in the first run, and Clasen followed with an RBI groundout to give Mulvane a 2-0 lead.
Hayden did not fold.
In the third, Kade Mitchell delivered a two-run hit to tie the game. Zayne Lichtenauer and Everrett Tourtillott followed with run-scoring hits later in the inning, giving Hayden a 4-2 lead and briefly putting Mulvane in its first real hole of the afternoon.
Mulvane answered immediately.
Ensley and Clubb opened the bottom of the third with back-to-back singles. Warkins and Hackleman followed with back-to-back RBI groundouts, pulling the Wildcats even at 4.
In the top of the fourth, Mitchell blooped a single into right field. Kydan Lichtenauer tried to score from second base and Hudson Myers came up throwing from right field.
The throw pulled Clubb up the third-base line, where Mulvane’s catcher caught it and tried to swipe a tag in one motion as Lichtenauer raced home. Hayden believed the tag was missed and that Lichtenauer had crossed with the go-ahead run.
The plate umpire ruled otherwise.
Lichtenauer was called out, wiping away the run and ending the threat. Hayden’s coaches argued the call, tempers flared and an assistant coach was ejected.
Mulvane took advantage of the emotional swing.
In the bottom half of the fourth, Hudson Myers led off with a walk, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored when Manny Myers singled him home for a 5-4 lead.
Mulvane never trailed again.
The Wildcats broke the game open in the fifth when Hackleman led off with a walk, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and scored when Sanders hit a hard ground ball to shortstop. Hackleman, running directly in front of the play, hopped over the ball as it skipped through the infield and into center field, allowing him to score for a 6-4 lead.
Mulvane kept applying pressure.
Two more walks loaded the bases. Manny Myers followed with a game-breaking swing, shooting a two-run single to stretch the lead to 8-4. Another RBI groundout pushed the margin to 9-4.
That was more than enough for Myers on the mound.
No walk-off was necessary this time. No final-inning escape.
Mulvane drew seven walks. They were hit by four pitches. They turned nearly every Hayden mistake into something useful. They received timely production from up and down the order. And when the season demanded an unheralded pitching hero, Myers gave them one.
That depth was the difference between a great season and a championship one.
This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 4:41 PM.
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