Aug 22, 2018


Inverary’s Kyle Ainslie is a key member of the Cobourg Bulls Softball team’s pitching staff, and helped the team amass a remarkable record in play this season. They won the Ontario Provincial championship without taking a loss in the entire tournament.

Kyle and fellow pitcher Clayton Robinson, are core members of the team. They each had very high strikeout to hit ratios, and yielded few runs all year.

The team played in July and August with heavy hearts. In early July, shortly before the Ontario championships, where the top three teams would qualify for the national championships, team coach Chris Bell, died suddenly.

“We dedicated the rest of the season to Chris Bell,” said Kyle. The team played flawlessly at the provincial championships in Grafton, winning the tournament and leading three Ontario qualifiers into the National Championships in St. Leonard, Quebec, which ran at the end of July into the beginning of August. Kyle’s teammate, Clayton Robinson was named pitcher of the tournament for his two wins, including a shutout in the final, and Kyle pitched a 5 hitter in his game, with 10 strikeouts in a 7 inning complete game.

At the Nationals, the Cobourg Bulls plowed through competition all week, winning 7 games in a row, including three shutouts, and only one game where they gave up more than 2 runs. Kyle pitched three days in a row, once in relief, and picked up three wins. He also pitched in the first game of the playoffs, which was a difficult 2-1 loss to the team from Saskatoon. The Bulls ended up finishing in third place, after losing again the next to day to Owen Sound, which was a disappointment for the team.

“The tournament was a success because we did so well through the week, but after that we were hoping to win it,” Kyle said.

The season wasn’t over yet, however. This past weekend the Bulls went to the International Softball Congress (ISC) U-23 World Championships, which is an invitation tournament, and they won that tournament to cap off the season. Overall the Bulls won 27 of the 30 games they played this year.

Kyle pitched in the final game at the World Championships, recording 12 strikeouts (of 30 batters faced) in a complete game victory, which, he said, was the biggest accomplishment of his career. He was also invited to play on the ISC 2018 all-tournament team.

Kyle works for Bencze Carpentry in Inverary, who have been supportive of his pitching career, which takes him away quite often during the busy summer months.

He started playing as a youngster in the Kingston and Frontenac Leagues and when he began to develop the potential that resulted in being able to hurl a softball at over 70mph and hit a spot, he joined the Napanee Express. He has since switched to Cobourg, where he will finish his U-23 career next summer.

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