{"id":602512,"date":"2026-04-23T23:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/602512\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T23:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:24:11","slug":"robinson-little-leaguers-join-hometown-turnout-for-braxton-ashcrafts-arlington-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/602512\/","title":{"rendered":"Robinson Little Leaguers join hometown turnout for Braxton Ashcraft\u2019s Arlington start"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON, Texas (KWTX) \u2014 Braxton Ashcraft had much of his hometown in the stands as he turned in a career-best start against the Texas Rangers, pitching the Pittsburgh Pirates to an 8-4 win at Globe Life Field.<\/p>\n

Ashcraft, a 2018 Robinson High School graduate and an MLB second-round draft pick, is from the small Central Texas community about 110 miles south of the Rangers\u2019 ballpark. He threw a career-high seven innings and a career-high 94 pitches. He allowed four hits and two runs, walked two and struck out five.<\/p>\n

\"PittsburghPittsburgh Pirates pitcher Braxton Ashcraft winds up to deliver to the Texas Rangers in a baseball game Wednesday, April 22, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo\/Tony Gutierrez)(Tony Gutierrez | AP)<\/p>\n

Ashcraft\u2019s father, Tony, his mother, Karen, and his wife, Cassidy, visited with KWTX and said Robinson fans came out in full force. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just like any other, truly, except we had a lot more people here,\u201d Tony told KWTX. \u201cIt\u2019s a hometown crowd and even though we\u2019re at a hostile place, we had probably two or three hundred people here, which was amazing and it just shows how our village shows up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The turnout included a group of fourth graders from the Viper baseball team in Robinson Little League \u2014 the same league where Ashcraft grew up playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite part from last night had to be Braxton Ashcraft pitching,\u201d said Cru Williams, 10. \u201cHe\u2019s a good pitcher, one of my favorite pitchers as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe turnout included a group of fourth graders from the Viper baseball team in Robinson Little League \u2014 the same league where Ashcraft grew up playing.(Courtesy Photos)<\/p>\n

Alicia Williams, Cru\u2019s mother, said the trip came together after she found out Ashcraft would be starting against Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast night was definitely a core memory for us parents and 11 Robinson fourth graders and their siblings,\u201d Williams said. \u201cIt all started last week \u2014 I reached out to my mom friends about taking the boys to the game when I found out Braxton Ashcraft was pitching against the Texas Rangers.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said a friend\u2019s husband, Steven Lewis, rented a 15-passenger van and the group made Ashcraft T-shirts for the game.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Robinson boys also got to meet Braxton Ashcraft\u2019s father, who thanked them for coming and offered advice.(Courtesy Photo)<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing a hometown hero actually make the dream so many little boys want a reality was the best part,\u201d Williams said. \u201cAll these boys play Robinson Little League and some are select players \u2014 it just shows them with hard work anything is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams said the boys also got to meet Ashcraft\u2019s father, who thanked them for coming and offered advice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think his talk meant more than anything to these boys,\u201d she said. \u201cHe took time to thank each boy for coming and shook their hand and then told them exactly what it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBraxton Ashcraft\u2019s dad told us \u2018if you want to be down there on the field you have to be a good citizen, be a good student and listen to your parents,\u201d Cru added. <\/p>\n

\"PittsburghPittsburgh Pirates’ Braxton Ashcraft interacts with a teammate after striking out Texas Rangers’ Evan Carter in the fourth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, April 22, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo\/Tony Gutierrez)(Tony Gutierrez | AP)<\/p>\n

Ashcraft, 25, is still early in his major league career. He made his MLB debut on May 26, 2025, after being called up from Triple-A, and later earned his first big-league win on June 8 when he recorded the final four outs in a 2-1 victory over Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

For the young players from Robinson, the night in Arlington was a close-up look at what a path from Little League to the big leagues can look like \u2014 and, for one start, a reminder that they didn\u2019t have to travel far to find a big-league example from home.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KWTX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas (KWTX) \u2014 Braxton Ashcraft had much of his hometown in the stands as he turned in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[69394,363,2240,11837,99,1022,2330],"class_list":{"0":"post-602512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-braxton-ashcraft","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","11":"tag-robinson","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-rangers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}