By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
As a 3-year starter at linebacker last fall, Brody Crane helped the Neosho football team to a 4-0 start and the program’s first winning season in 6 years.
But while the Wildcats got off to another strong start this fall, the Neosho senior was on another continent in a time zone 14 hours ahead of Missouri, playing a different sport. Crane, who has committed to play baseball at the University of Arkansas next year, found out a few days before Neosho’s football season opener that he’d made the 20-player roster for USA Baseball’s 2025 18U National Team and would be heading to Okinawa, Japan for the Baseball World Cup in September.
“I’ve watched every game, even when I was in Japan I watched every game online and I was always texting my guys like ‘good stuff, good job,’” Crane said this week.
Team USA went 8-1 in the tournament from Sept. 4-14 and brought home the world championship after knocking off Japan 2-0 in the finale. Crane, a right-handed pitcher and the only player from Missouri on the roster, contributed to the championship run with 1.1 innings pitched and a pair of strikeouts against Australia. His personal highlight, though, occurred in the early hours of a Sunday morning while most of Neosho was still asleep.
“Winning the gold medal game,” Crane said. “That’s a pretty basic answer but winning that gold medal game, it’s unreal. The feeling you get that you just won gold for an entire country. You went and got selected to represent a whole country and you won. You bring back the best possible outcome to your country, and you represented them very well. I thought that was probably the standout moment of the trip. Really when you go there that’s the goal, you want to win and we accomplished that.”
The win marked Team USA’s 11th world title, and it concluded a whirlwind few months for Crane, who started his journey with the organization in July in North Carolina. There he was one of 88 players trying out in the first phase of training camp, and he was one of 42 who were invited back for the second phase in late August.
“They announced the team with a big announcement at the end of dinner on the last day,” Crane said. “Once you get the call to come back after the first trial you’re like okay, I actually have a chance to make the roster, this is pretty cool. And then when it’s the last cut you’re in there and you’re anxious because you don’t know. Once your name gets called, obviously like a huge wave of relief hits you. We exited the room all together, the guys who made the team, and everyone started celebrating. We were all pretty hyped and then we called our families and basically we’re all just proud.”
Throughout the process, Crane was communicating with Neosho’s football coaches, still unsure what sport he’d be playing in September.
“I’ll either make it or I won’t and they were completely open to me not playing; if I didn’t make it obviously they were going to want me to play but if I did make it they were still supporting me in whatever choice I made,” Crane said. “It was pretty pressure-free to be honest because of the amazing coaching staff and their support for me.”
Crane’s standout pitch is probably his fastball, with velocity in the mid-to-upper 90’s, and he said he worked a lot on throwing changeups and added in some sliders as he focused on reading swings.
“Trying to attack fastball because that’s arguably my best pitch, that or my changeup,” he said. “Attacking fastball, reading that swing and then going off of that swing. Going into the game you have a very limited scouting report on each team so when you toe the mound you have to go off what your strengths are and attack. That’s what my goal was. When I walked out there it’s a straight adrenaline rush. You look up during or after your warmup pitches and everyone’s loud. It’s a different feeling that I’ve never experienced before in my life.”
With his senior baseball season still ahead, Crane wants to improve “everything” about his “complete arsenal.” He’s focused on getting stronger and staying healthier, and said a group of Wildcats are already getting a lot of work in.
“It doesn’t matter if we have a designated open field time, we’ll go to other places or facilities and work together,” he said. “We’re all getting better and buying in and that’s really going to help our team. This spring I think I speak for everyone on my team when I say we want to go win that state championship. That’s a goal to have and I think we have a shot to accomplish that.”
Crane serves as a student cadet at RISE elementary in Neosho and was touched by the “warm welcome” home he received after winning gold.
“I got there and they threw a little celebration for me,” he said. “The community as a whole was congratulating me. It was really nice to come back to such a great welcome.”
He said being a part of USA baseball is one of the best things he’s ever done in his life, an “amazing accomplishment.”
“I got to represent my country pretty much on and off the field because even when we weren’t playing, we were still doing stuff representing the USA and that’s an experience I hope to have again.”
The football season, meanwhile, has reached the midpoint and Crane said it’s been tough watching games from the sidelines.
“I’m always trying to help them in ways while not being on the field,” he said. “Trying to help them off the field when they’re on the field, whether that’s working out with them, seeing something in the game they might change or work on, just things like that so I still try to help as much as I possibly can.”
