Ravencraft, at the 2016 Under Armour All-America Pre-Season Tournament.

Fresh off his second consecutive appearance this past January in Mesa, Arizona at the Under Armour All-America Pre-Season Tournament, Baseball Factory alum Peyton Ravencraft last week signed his letter of intent to play baseball at Harding University. Harding is a Division II school playing in the Great American Conference in Searcy, Arkansas.

Ravencraft, a four-year varsity starter for Oklahoma Christian High School in Oklahoma City, OK, leads the team this season with a .509 batting average, .627 on-base percentage, slugging .789 and an OPS of 1.416 in his senior season.

Peyton holds high grades at Oklahoma Christian and plans to major in engineering at Harding. He will graduate in May as a three-year member of the National Honor Society. Instead of just stepping onto the field to participate in baseball skills at his first Under Armour Baseball Factory National Tryout in 2013, Peyton learned immediately of the importance in what it takes to be a college baseball player and the significance of academics being the utmost importance in finding a school that fits.

“Before he even stepped on the field, the Baseball Factory tryout director and coaches talked about what it took to be a college baseball player,” said Paul Ravencraft, Peyton’s father. “The number one thing they stressed was academics. With limited scholarships available to college baseball teams, players would need to try to find ways to offset some of the college costs. They talked about finding a school that fit them for an education as well as a college baseball career. Peyton knew he wanted to play in college and felt this philosophy was the best path for him to take.”

In addition to his two-time nod as a Pre-Season All-American, Peyton has attended numerous Baseball Factory events and sought out to raise the level of his play, taking his talent to high-level Player Development events such as the Omaha National World Series in 2013, 2014 Under Armour Southwest Championships and the 2015 Arizona Senior Fall Classic.

This past January in Arizona at Pre-Season, he ran his best 60-time to date (6.72) and produced a powerful, level-swing, good for a 92 MPH exit velocity. The left-handed hitting Ravencraft gets it done in the outfield too, as scouts noted his ability to track the ball well and make routine plays look easy. It’s a testament to Peyton throughout the last three years, that as he’s worked to continuously get better, his play got stronger both offensively and defensively.

“I think one of the biggest factors in Peyton’s success throughout the recruiting process was he was always taking the weakness described in the evaluations and worked at them,” said Rob Onolfi, Peyton’s Player Development Coordinator at Baseball Factory. “That made him more of a complete player and in turn more marketable to college coaches.”

The experiences shared together as a family, accompanying Peyton to tryouts and events across the country will always be remembered by Paul and the entire Ravencraft family and hold significant weight.

“Baseball Factory not only taught Peyton how to refine his baseball skills, but helped him down the path to achieve his ultimate goal. Each of the events Peyton attended was located far away from Oklahoma City, but the time our family spent together on road trips was always an adventure. Those are experiences we will always treasure. The recruiting information our family learned through Baseball Factory helped him attain his dream.”

Ravencraft during his signing day for Harding with baseball coach Jacob Stephenson.

Wrapping up his senior season and then quickly turning his focus to Harding, Peyton feels that the events he attended have prepared him well enough at the next level as a player and a person as well.

“The Baseball Factory events were a great experience for me. I was able to train and play with professional baseball coaches from all over the country. These events prepared me to be at my best during college showcase events. I feel it put me ahead of others players that hadn’t experienced being looked at under this kind of spotlight. I was able to work out, live with and play with players from all parts of the country and even Japan that had a lot of the same goals I have. Many thanks to Baseball Factory and the coaches from all the events I attended!”