BRANDON — Mitchell and Ethan Price stand tall for the Kimball/White Lake Nationals. 

The brothers possess towering frames not often seen at any level of baseball, with Mitchell standing 6-foot-11 and his little brother Ethan at 6-foot-8. 

“It’s very rare,” Kimball/White Lake manager Wes Kroupa said about the pitcher’s height advantage. “It’s a different angle of course with the pitch coming in so that’s different as a hitter. I fortunately haven’t had to see them as a hitter. But I imagine it’s not very fun.”

The brothers definitely take advantage of their height on the mound, with both sitting atop KWL’s pitching categories. Ethan has pitched 40.1 innings, with 85 strikeouts, and has a 1.04 ERA. Mitchell, meanwhile, has pitched 33.1 innings, with 49 strikeouts and a 1.47 ERA. 

Ethan is 7-0 this season, while Mitchell is 5-1 on the year. 

The numbers are a product of their noticeable height advantage on the mound. 

“It just helps because of how people see it,” said Mitchell, who is a right-handed pitcher. “Not a lot of seven footers — or about seven footers are pitching — so I got a little different angle. I release the ball a little closer to the plate. It’s just something different for the hitters to see than the average.”

“I would say it definitely gives me an advantage,” added Ethan, who is a left-handed pitcher. “I think it gives the hitters a lot harder of an angle to literally see I guess you could say, and you get a little bit of a perceived velocity in that factor where it’s kind of like the hitters have less time to think than a normal pitcher.”

Kimball/White Lake's Mitchell Price delivers a pitch last season for the Nationals. (Ryan Deal / 605 Sports)

The brothers were both late bloomers as they ascended into college baseball pitchers. Mitchell stood 6-foot-7 in high school, and grew four inches in college. Mitchell, a 2016 Mitchell High School graduate, started his baseball career at Indian Hills Community College in Iowa and later went to Heartland Community College in Illinois. Mitchell then played for Division I Middle Tennessee State University, before finishing up at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida. 

Ethan stood 6-foot-4 when he was in high school, and sprouted to 6-foot-8 when he was in college. Ethan, who graduated from Mitchell High School in 2021, played junior college baseball at Rowan College in New Jersey. He will play college baseball at Northern State University this season. 

The Price brothers, who look more like basketball players, played hoops in their younger years. But both gravitated toward baseball, with Ethan saying he picked the sport because of his older brother. 

“I kind of followed my brother honestly,” Ethan said. “The thing for me is I was pretty scrawny, and I wasn’t really tall growing up. So it never really made me want to play basketball growing up that much.”

They’ve also developed a strong baseball bond together, giving each other tips and competing against each other.   

“We are always trying to one up each other when we are out on the field,” Mitchell said. “So that’s fun.”

Ethan said his brother is also like a coach and role model, while also being competitive with him. 

“We are pretty competitive with each other,” Ethan said. “It’s always funny when we pitch on separate days, and we are always just trying to critique and then do better than the other.”

The brothers, who helped Kimball/White Lake (16-1) win the Pony Hills League championship, are release players for the Nationals and have been a welcoming addition to the squad. 

“They are just awesome guys,” Kroupa said. “They just get along really well. Everyone loves them. They are just great guys, too. We are pretty lucky.”

The Nationals will play Groton at 1 p.m. Friday in the opening round of the Class B state tournament.