Sato has perfect debut with IBL’s Maple Leafs

TORONTO – Star feminine pitcher Ayami Sato made historical past as the primary lady to play in a Canadian males’s skilled baseball league on Sunday.

She additionally had an ideal debut for the Intercounty Baseball League’s Toronto Maple Leafs.

Sato struck out one batter with out permitting anybody on base within the first two innings of an eventual 6-5 loss to the Kitchener Panthers.

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Followers at Dominico Discipline in Christie Pits welcomed Sato with loud applause when the general public deal with announcer launched her within the beginning lineup for Toronto’s dwelling opener.

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Extensively thought-about the highest feminine pitcher in baseball, the 35-year-old from Japan signed with the Maple Leafs in December to develop into the IBL’s first feminine participant.

Sato helped Japan win 5 of its seven consecutive Girls’s Baseball World Cup titles (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018), incomes MVP honours in 2014, ’16 and ’18.

She pitched within the Japan Girls’s Baseball League from 2013 till it suspended operations in 2021, main the league in strikeouts in three of its final 4 seasons.

Toronto completed seventh within the IBL final season with a 17-25 report.

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Might 11, 2025.