Abram brings experience against pro hitters to Oklahoma
Ontario Terriers and Junior National alum Ben Abram (Georgetown, Ont.) has excelled as a starting pitcher in his first collegiate season with the Oklahoma Sooners. Photo: James Stewart/OU Daily
*This article was originally published on the OU Daily website on April 9, 2019. You can read the original article here.
By Jordan Gledhill
OU Daily
On a warm March afternoon in Dunedin, Florida, Ben Abram took the mound with the opportunity of a lifetime. The Canadian Junior National Team was playing its annual game against the Toronto Blue Jays’ major league roster and manager Greg Hamilton gave the ball to Abram, an 18-year-old high school senior.
The 6-foot-7, 260 pound right-hander was set to square off against fellow right-hander Marcus Stroman — the opening day starter for the Jays in 2016 — and face a lineup filled with decorated prospects and MLB veterans in front of a sizeable spring crowd at Dunedin Stadium
The outing did not go as planned from the get-go. A four-pitch walk to leadoff hitter Cavan Biggio — son of Hall of Famer Craig Biggio — was immediately followed by a two-run homer off the bat of Bo Bichette, the then-No. 11 prospect in all of baseball according to MLB.com.
But Abram, who has pitched against professional hitters since age 15, was unfazed when 4x All-Star Russell Martin stepped to the plate. After getting behind in the count 1-0, Abram forced Martin to pop out into foul territory for the first out and would go on to work out of the inning with no further damage.
“He really has a great feel for pitching,” Hamilton, who coached Abram for three years, said. “He slows things down on the mound and is really under control out there as a pitcher. He’s a very good competitor as you would get to know him but he’s really gathered, really controlled. He has a strong belief in his ability to be successful and get people out.”
In the year since that outing, Abram was drafted by the San Diego Padres, tossed a no-hitter, led the junior national team to a bronze medal at the U18 World Qualifiers and as a true freshman has established himself as the No. 4 starter in an Oklahoma pitching staff that — through April 8 — leads the Big 12 and ranks near the top of the country with a 3.15 ERA. His unrelenting confidence on the mound is paired with a composure and mature nature that has caught the eyes of scouts and coaches.
“He’s really coachable, he’s mature, engaging when you talk to him, he really gets it,” Hamilton said. “He gets what pitching is all about, he gets what being part of a team is. There’s just a presence and a calmness to him, but there’s a confidence, which is something you want to have out of a pitcher who’s at the front end of your rotation.”
“Dude, you live in Canada.”
Sandy Abram was sitting in the drive thru line at Tim Horton’s donut shop in the family’s hometown of Georgetown, Ontario, when she received a phone call. On the other line, her son had some exciting news. The 15-year-old emerging right-hander announced to his mother that he had been offered a spot on the Canadian Junior National Team, just receiving word from coach Hamilton.
It was the pinnacle of Abram’s young career, and with the offer came the opportunity to travel around the world to pitch against some of the game’s brightest young stars. At 15, Abram received the offer at a younger age than most pitchers.
“Especially as a pitcher, Abram was extremely young at 15,” Ben’s father, Brett Abram, said. “Typically the pitchers are 17 and 18 because they have to be physically and mentally ready to pitch against the pros.”
Just six years earlier, 9-year-old Abram — who played soccer and hockey growing up — announced to his parents that he wanted to give baseball a try. Although both parents were athletes — Brett played football for Western University in Ontario and Sandy played volleyball for Durham College — neither played baseball competitively.
“We were like, ‘Okay, sure,’ so we signed him up for some house league baseball,” Brett said. “No real aspirations other than just interest in playing the game and it kind of just kept going from there.”
“It was one of the first sports when I went to practice I was like, I really love going to practice,” Abram added.
Three years later, 12-year-old Abram was searching for an opportunity to play baseball year round.
“He approached the [rec-league coach] and said ‘How do I play baseball year round?’ and I think his coach just laughed at him and said ‘Dude, you live in Canada,’” Sandy said.
Shortly after, Abram found an opportunity to play with the Ontario Terriers, a local travel team that trains in the winter and early spring and plays its games in the summer and early fall.
“High school baseball is almost non-existent [due to weather],” Brett said. “And if you’re going to excel you’re going to have to play on these teams like the Ontario Terriers. There’s a number of so-called elite travel teams and that’s what you have to play on in order to train [during the winter].”
Abram balanced time between the junior national team and the Terriers throughout high school, and had many outings that caught the eyes of scouts around the country — even tossing a seven inning no-hitter in June 2018 as a member of the Terriers.
“It was funny after the game someone had told me it was a no-hitter and I was like ‘No way,’ but we checked the scorebook and it actually was,” Abram said. “My grandpa was there so I got to give him the game ball and it was a pretty special moment but it was kind of weird because we didn’t know it was happening until after the game.”
“He’s a low-pulse guy.”
Confident and Composed. Those are the words coach Hamilton used to describe the former junior national team player and current Oklahoma pitcher.
“(Abram is) low pulse when he competes, and he’s a low-pulse guy in general when you’re around him,” Hamilton said. “But it’s not to be confused with a guy that doesn’t have that competing level because he certainly has a competing level behind the low pulse. He’s just in control of his emotions, he’s in control of his competitive fire, and he’s got a plan and he goes out there and he’s very efficient in executing it.”
According to Brett and Sandy, a scout for the Baltimore Orioles had similar words. Abram toed the rubber at a Prep Baseball Report (PBR) showcase in Indiana and — according to Brett — gave up a few hits and runs on an overall average day. Afterwards, Brett and Sandy were approached by the scout.
“He said, ‘You should know that he actually had a particularly good day,’” Brett said. “(The scout went on to say) ‘Yeah, you know he gave up a few hits but he kept his composure through the whole thing and that’s 50 percent of what we’re looking for is whether or not he can keep it together.’”
When he began to pitch against professional hitters at age 15 as part of the junior national team, Abram admitted he did not have the speed on his fastball to throw it by players who — in some cases — had been in the minor leagues for years. He said the experience with the junior national team taught him how to fail and also helped him learn how to develop his breaking ball and changeup.
“My first outing for that team — against a pro team — I gave up like seven runs or something crazy after being at home and just dominating,” Abram said. “It teaches you how to fail in the sense that I was extremely overmatched. I was age 15 pitching against guys who were 20-plus, playing four or five years in the minors already. It really taught me how to stay calm and breathe and regulate myself... if you’re 16 you’re not gonna throw it by guys who have played in the minor leagues. You have to learn how to locate a secondary pitch.”
He made his final outing with the junior national team in the bronze medal game of the U18 World Qualifiers in Panama, where — making his fourth start of the tournament — he said he only had enough stamina to make it to the fifth inning, but a late homer and a string of shutdown innings from the bullpen sealed the victory over Nicaragua.
“[Abram] was very efficient again like he always is,” Hamilton said. “He was outstanding. Kind of one of those games where you have to win and you want to win and he’s had the ball in those types of environments for a lot of years. He was very integral to our ability to win that game and get a bronze medal and he was the leader of our pitching staff.”
“He’s getting more and more competitive and comfortable each time he goes out there.”
When Abram departed Panama with his teammates on the junior national team and returned to Oklahoma — leaving the team coached by Hamilton and returning to the squad coached by Skip Johnson — he transitioned from one ‘baseball genius’ to another.
“Everyday at the bullpen, even if I’m not throwing or I’m just watching a bullpen or something like that, hearing him try to work with the other pitchers,” Abram said. “He’s always thinking and he’s always finding ways to try and make everybody better and make you understand something better. For me, he’s taught me so much and I’ve only been here for a few months. I feel like I’ve gotten significantly better since I came here and I have to thank a lot of that to [Johnson].”
Abram has been an integral part of an Oklahoma pitching staff that ranks in the top 20 in the nation. The freshman right-hander earned a victory in five of his first six starts and through April 8 ranks first in the Big 12 in walks plus hits per inning pitched (0.93) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (7.8).
He also pitched 19 full innings before allowing the first walk of his collegiate career.
“He’s been very good at [accuracy] for a very long time,” Hamilton said. “He has a real good sense of where his body is and is able to repeat his delivery consistently, and as a result he’s able to command pitches. He doesn’t walk many people and he never has.”
The very same composure that Hamilton, the scout and Brett and Sandy mentioned has shown up during the freshman’s first few collegiate outings. In the fourth inning of a road game against New Mexico on March 19, Abram — who had allowed just one walk in his first 25.1 innings — surrendered back-to-back walks to load the bases with one out. When one hit could have easily erased a two-run lead for the Sooners, Abram settled down and retired the next two batters to retire the side unharmed. He went on to allow just one more baserunner on the night en route to another Oklahoma victory and Abram’s fifth win of the season.
When he takes the mound against some of the best teams in the Big 12 down the road, he brings with him a confidence and composure that has developed from years of pitching against professional players.
“You have a guy who’s going to be consistent. His effort level is going to be consistent and I don’t expect him to go week in and week out and throw seven innings,” Johnson said. “I expect the effort — and he’s going to give you that — and he’s getting more and more competitive and comfortable each time he goes out there.”