WTH Award 2026
Scoring Methodology
How we selected the best batting cage and training facilities in the country. No paid placement. No partnerships. Just math and real reviews.
No Pay-To-Play. Ever.
No facility paid to be on this list. No facility paid to be removed. No "featured sponsor" spots. WhereToHit.com does not accept payment for placement in awards, rankings, or editorial features. These winners earned their spots through public review data.
The Formula
Where Rating is the Google Maps star rating (1–5) and Reviews is the total Google review count.
Example A — High Rating, Few Reviews
Great rating, not enough signal to rank high. Could be friends reviewing a friend's facility.
Example B — Solid Rating, Many Reviews
420 families chose to review this facility. That's earned.
The logarithm smooths the advantage of raw review counts — a facility with 10,000 reviews doesn't score 1,000× better than one with 10 reviews. But volume still matters. Consistent excellence across hundreds of real reviews is genuinely harder to achieve.
Selection Criteria
WTH Score Formula
Every eligible batting cage receives a WTH Score: Google Rating × log(Review Count + 1). This rewards genuine consistency — a 5.0 rating with 8 reviews scores lower than a 4.8 with 400 reviews.
Minimum Thresholds
Facilities must have a minimum Google rating of 4.0 and at least 100 verified Google reviews to qualify. No threshold-gaming — both bars must clear simultaneously.
Chain Deduplication
Multi-location chains are capped at 2 locations per brand in the national Top 50. Regional champions may come from chains.
Pure Merit Ranking
Rankings are determined purely by WTH Score — no geographic quotas or state caps. The best facilities rise to the top regardless of location.
Venue Type Filter
Only batting cages and baseball/softball training facilities are eligible. General sports complexes, little league organizations, and retail stores are excluded.
Data Source
Scores are computed from Google Maps ratings and review counts collected across our directory of 14,800+ venues. Data snapshot taken January 2026.
Category Awards
Four special awards are given to the top performer within each category. Winners are selected from the national Top 50 list.
Best Overall Score
The highest WTH Score in the Top 50 — the single best combination of rating and review volume in the country.
Best Indoor Facility
Highest WTH Score among facilities confirmed as indoor-only or primary-indoor operations.
Best Outdoor Experience
Top scorer among outdoor-primary facilities — fields, outdoor cages, and mixed outdoor complexes.
Most Community-Rated
The facility with the highest raw Google review count — proof that real families keep coming back to review.
Regional Champions
One regional champion per region is selected — the highest WTH Score winner within each geographic region.
South Region
TX, FL, GA, NC, SC, AL, MS, LA, TN, VA, AR, OK, KY, WV
Northeast Region
NY, NJ, PA, MA, CT, RI, NH, VT, ME, MD, DE
Midwest Region
OH, IL, MI, IN, MO, WI, MN, IA, KS, NE, ND, SD
West Region
CA, WA, OR, AZ, CO, NV, UT, NM, ID, MT, WY, AK, HI
What We Don't Do
- ✗We do not accept nominations or applications. Winners are discovered through data, not submitted.
- ✗We do not charge facilities to appear on the awards list.
- ✗We do not remove facilities from the list unless they close or lose eligibility.
- ✗We do not use our own platform ratings to determine winners — Google rating data is third-party verified.
- ✗We do not guarantee future awards to past winners.