Now an All-Star, Ashcraft was outplaying NFL stars in high school

PITTSBURGH -- Pirates starter Braxton Ashcraft is often in the spotlight, standing on the top of the pitcher’s mound in Major League ballparks. Though he’s used to it after starring under the Friday Night Lights in the heart of Texas.

“I don't think I've ever been as nervous as I was on an open kickoff,” Ashcraft said. “That's a different feeling. Looking back, I miss it a lot.”

The lights will only get brighter for the 26-year-old, who earned his first All-Star nod, filling in for teammate Paul Skenes on the National League roster. Entering his final start before the All-Star break on Friday, Ashcraft had a 3.24 ERA and nine wins through 18 starts in his first full season as an MLB starter.

A decade prior, Ashcraft was a record-breaking wide receiver at Robinson High School in the Lone Star State, bullying defenders with his 6-foot-5 frame and blazing speed. Look up the receiving leaders in Texas high school football’s 2016 season, and you’ll see a familiar name in now-Dallas Cowboys star CeeDee Lamb. Then look one above Lamb, and you’ll see Ashcraft with an absurd 2,090 yards and 37 touchdowns as a junior.

“That must be fake,” Skenes joked when hearing the leaderboard.

It’s not.

Cornerbacks couldn’t match up with Ashcraft because of his size, often towering multiple inches over the opponent and meeting them at the top on passes from former Robinson head coach Tommy Allison’s son, Chase. Tommy concocted a simple plan to feed the beast of Ashcraft.

On the goal line, Ashcraft was split out wide for jump balls in the corner of the end zone. When teams attempted to play man coverage in the open field, Allison devised screen passes to use Ashcraft’s blazing speed.

“He was kind of like a baby giraffe,” said Bryan Kent, Ashcraft’s baseball coach and an offensive assistant at Robinson.

“With Braxton, it was just anywhere, anytime,” Chase Allison added. “If he was double-covered, triple-covered, it really didn't seem to matter. Just throw it to him, and he'd go find it.”

At times in his prep career, Ashcraft said he thought he was better at football than baseball. Chase Allison believes Ashcraft could’ve gone to any college he wanted for football. Ashcraft said there were “plenty of conversations” after his stellar junior campaign, but he was already committed to Baylor for baseball and knew he was likely headed for professional baseball.

Still, Ashcraft believes his days on the gridiron ignited a passion for competition. To kick off his junior year in 2016, Robinson wasn’t picked to have much success. Ashcraft then came out with a bang to start the season, catching four first-quarter touchdowns and seven overall.

Later in the season, Ashcraft suffered a broken finger during practice ahead of the district playoffs, and Tommy Allison worried he might not play due to his baseball obligations. Ashcraft put a soft cast on the finger and caught a touchdown to help the Rockets win.

Ashcraft sees similarities in Robinson’s jump from his sophomore year to junior year to the Pirates’ current climb. In 2015, Ashcraft saw glimpses of success in his football team that didn’t follow until the following season. While it’s a stretch to compare high school football to MLB, he looks at Pittsburgh as making the same strides.

Ashcraft practiced through summer training camps in turf temperatures near 120 degrees. Tommy Allison said he was never afraid to put his body on the line. His football history made it more difficult to stay healthy in professional baseball, undergoing multiple shoulder surgeries, Tommy John surgery and a meniscus tear. He didn’t make the Major Leagues until 2025, seven years after his second-round selection by the Pirates out of high school.

Though it was the weekly routine of football that prepared him for becoming a starting pitcher.

“When I was growing up, I played everything, and I was playing the whole time,” Ashcraft said. “For football, to compete once a week, that was the biggest thing going into professional baseball. It’s like throwing every six days.”

Ashcraft worked on his baseball talents on the side during football season at times. But he often tried to separate his work by seasons, not conflicting too much. Fellow receiver and close friend Rhett Roznos said that while everyone knew Ashcraft enjoyed baseball more, when it came time for opening kickoff, you wouldn’t know it.

Ashcraft performed on the travel baseball circuit in the summers and sometimes juggled football in the mornings with baseball in the afternoons. After a stellar junior campaign in baseball, where his velocity jumped and he gained scouts' attention, Ashcraft made the choice to end his football career.

“It was an easy decision to not play my senior year,” Ashcraft said. “But looking back on it now, it’s probably one of the biggest regrets of my life.”

Ashcraft gets his football fix through watching Lamb and his favorite team in Dallas. It obviously worked out in choosing baseball, as proven further by the invitation to Philadelphia for the Midsummer Classic. But the adrenaline of his high school days never goes away.

“I get the itch,” Ashcraft said. “It's fun when I go home, to be able to talk about it with the people I grew up with and kind of reminisce on what could have been. But it's hard to say I made the wrong choice.”