Baseball/Softball - Team Italy

General
Italy secured their place at the 2020 Olympic Games by winning in the Africa/Europe qualification tournament. Their road to Tokyo began with victory at the 2019 European Championship, where they lost to the Netherlands in the group stages but bounced back to beat the Dutch 3-2 in the final. The top six teams from that tournament progressed to the Africa/Europe qualification event, where Italy went undefeated. They beat the Netherlands again as well as Great Britain, France, the Czech Republic, and Botswana to finish top of the table and book their ticket to Tokyo.

Italy are competing at the Olympic Games for the third time, having taken part in the 2000 and 2004 Games. They finished fifth with two wins from seven matches in 2000, but were ranked in last place in 2004, with a single win and seven defeats in Athens.

At European level, Italy have battled the Netherlands for continental dominance over the past decade, with the two teams contesting all five European championship finals between 2011 and 2019. The Netherlands were victorious on three occasions, while Italy claimed gold in 2015 and at the most recent edition in 2019.

At the world championships, Italy's best result is a sixth-place finish, which they achieved in 1998 and 2006. A 1-0 defeat to Mexico in the championship round ended their campaign in 2018.