Russell-Victoria Baseball Wraps Up Season With 4th Place Finish at State
MANHATTAN-The Russell-Victoria Broncos Baseball team concluded the 2026 season with a 13-6 loss to Burlington in the Class 3A State Tournament Third Place game on Thursday evening at rain-soaked Tointon Family Stadium.
The Broncos, who were coming off a heart-breaking extra inning loss to Silver Lake just a little over 24 hours earlier in the Class 3A Semifinals, jumped out to a fast start with a four-run outburst in the top of the first inning thanks to an RBI single by Max Evans, a wild pitch that scored Evans, a bases-loaded walk by Kyle Huser and a sacrifice fly by Trey Zorn.
However, the Wildcats who had suffered a gut-wrenching loss of their own the day before in their Semifinal contest against Girard, roared back to tie the game with four runs of their own in the bottom half of the frame, two of which scored with two outs after an error and two walks that led to a two-run single by Ayden Winters.
Burlington (25-3) then broke the game open with two runs in the fourth inning and five more in the bottom of the fifth with four scoring on an inside the park grand slam home run by Mason Collins as they built up an 11-4 lead. Russell-Victoria got two of the runs back in the top of the sixth on an RBI single by Evans and a sacrifice fly by Wes Dreiling. The Wildcats closed out the scoring in the bottom of the sixth on a two-run triple by Brayzdn Spring and pitcher Alex Mautz, the winning pitcher who took over from starter Maddux Cheever in the top of the first, set the Broncos down in order in the top of the seventh inning to claim the third place trophy, while Russell-Victoria settled for fourth place.
Zorn (5-3) who took the loss for Russell-Victoria (23-7) worked four plus innings followed by Jaxon Ross, pitching for the first time this postseason going the rest of the way. The Broncos finished fourth for the second time in their seven State Tournament appearances, also finishing fourth in 2008. Russell-Victoria finished a program-best third at State in 2014 and 2016.
The game started more than 90 minutes after the originally scheduled first pitch as rain hampered the Manhattan area for a good part of the day on Thursday. The final inning of the Class 2-1A Third Place game between Rossville and Frankfort, which was played before the Class 3A game was contested in a heavy downpour.
The senior class for Russell-Victoria won a total of 69 games during their four seasons, which includes 41 victories the last two years alone.
Thursday's game was the last in a Bronco uniform for Dreiling, Evans, Jarod Ford, Wyatt Harmon, Huser, Walker Middleton, Jaxon Ross, Pierce Schoenberger, Sam Thielen and Zorn.