Winter Springs High School softball team made history this week. The ladies winning the 8A State Championship down in Vero Beach and completing something very few have ever done. In this week’s Athlete of the Week, our Despina Barton introduces us to the team’s ace pitcher Aynslie Furbush:
- Bears junior pitcher Aynslie Furbush threw 72 strikes in 8A Title Game
- She is committed to play softball for Ole Miss
- Her favorite pitches are her rise and curve ball
Aynslie Furbush first made a splash on the softball scene back in 2017 with a walk-off home run against West Orange.
“I was good but I wasn’t great or anything,” Furbush recalled of her younger years. “I just kept working and proving other people like that I actually deserve to be here.”
Two years later the junior pitcher for Winter Springs is throwing her most efficient games.
“She’s thrown 150-160 pitches last year maybe the year before but this year she’s been able to throw strikes. And get outs,” Bears Head Coach Mark Huaman said of her progression.
“Aynslie is a game changer and she’s made even made better with the team mates around her.”
That statement couldn’t ring truer than this past weekend on the state’s biggest stage. Furbush controlling the 8A State Championship game throwing a 1 hitter against the top team in the nation, Lakewood Ranch.
“Aynslie gets focused and gets cold and she was just dicing them up,” Huaman said of that game.
To the tune of 72 strikes, four strike outs in a complete game effort that put the Bears in position to win its first ever state softball championship.
The dog pile was epic and the celebration a payoff after stringing together a perfect, 31-0 season.
“I guess it was a rush to my bones like finally being able to say I’m a state champion instead of ‘like we are going to be a state champ,” Furbush explained. “We’re going to do it.’ And now it’s we are state champs. There are no words to explain how me and my team feel right now, it’s like amazing.”
While five graduated off this this year’s team on Tuesday, Aynslie will return next year for her senior campaign before taking off for Ole Miss. This Winter Springs program is great position to keep the run going.