Western Brown High School junior pitcher Abe Crall was recently named to the Southwest Ohio Baseball Coaches Association Division I All-City first team.
Western Brown High School junior pitcher Ben Crall recently earned Southwest Ohio Baseball Coaches Association Division I All-City second-team honors.
Along with solid numbers on the mound and at the plate, Western Brown High School’s Matt Frye also starred on the base paths, collecting 12 stolen bases and ultimately earning Southwest Ohio Baseball Coaches Association Division I All-City second-team honors.
Competition-wise, Abe and Ben Crall probably aren’t unlike other twin brothers.
This past high school baseball season, when one brother did something noteworthy, the other seemed to feel the need to follow suit. Can’t let the twin brother one-up you, you know.
That was the case from the start of the 2023 season for the Western Brown High School junior pitchers: Abe threw a no-hitter in his first start of the season; five days later, Ben matched the feat.
It went that way for most of the season and, in the end, both were named to the Southern Buckeye Athletic and Academic Conference American Division first team, both for the second consecutive season, with Abe earning Player of the Year honors (he was co-Player of the Year the previous season).
Then, earlier this month, both were named to the Southwest Ohio Baseball Coaches Association Division I All-City teams, with Abe earning first-team and Ben second-team accolades. Broncos’ teammate Matt Frye also was named to the second team.
Abe Crall, who threw two no-hitters in his eight starts and was a perfect 6-0 on the season, was first in the conference in strikeouts (82 in 44 innings) and tied for second in wins (six), and his scant 0.064 earned run average was the lowest by any pitcher logging more than 18 innings.
He also shined offensively, batting .405 with nine doubles, 28 runs scored, and 10 stolen bases while helping lead the Broncos – along with Ben Crall and Frye – to first place in the SBAAC American Division. He was named this week’s Brown County boys Athlete of the Week.
In that first no-hitter in his first start of the season, he struck out 15 in seven innings with just one base-on-balls in a 3-0 victory over Clinton Massie High School on March 29. His second no-hitter was more of the same, with 13 strikeouts, but in only five innings, and again just one base-on-balls in a 10-0 victory over Goshen High School on April 19.
Not surprisingly, it was Goshen that Ben Crall no-hit April 3. He struck out 12 and walked four in a 3-2 victory, earning Brown County boys Athlete of the Week honors for the effort.
“That’s the fastest I’ve ever seen him throw,” his coach and father, Jon Crall, said after the game of Ben Crall, who threw 105 pitches in the seven-inning contest. “And I thought he was throwing even harder the last few innings.”
Ben Crall tied for 11th in the SBAAC in strikeouts with 43 in 35-2/3 innings. At the plate, he tied for 12th in the conference in runs batted it with 20.
Frye, also an SBAAC American Division first-teamer, tied for 12th in RBI in the conference (20). He also had 12 stolen bases and, as a pitcher, struck out 32 in 31-2/3 innings. He was the lone area Brown County representative in the recent SWOBCA All-Star Game, which drew the top senior players in the region from the 2023 season.