European Championship Update: Carosone, Italy pick up pair of wins over Czech Republic and Spain

Ronchi Dei Legionari, ITALY – Softball assistant coach Emily Carosone and Team Italy continued to dominate the field at the 2021 Women's Softball European Championship, picking up a pair of wins on the first day of the second stage of round-robin competition.   
 
Opening Wednesday with its closest game of the championship tournament thus far, Italy topped the Czech Republic, 5-0. It was the first game of the tournament that Italy had not won via the run rule. Carosone started the contest at second base and reached base once on an error.
 
Making a start as the designated player, Carosone helped Italy remain undefeated with a 13-0 win against Spain in four innings to close Wednesday's slate. Carosone drew a pair of walks, scored three runs and slugged an RBI double in the second inning.
 
Italy has outscored opponents 85-0 and has earned five run-rule victories in its six games and joins the Netherlands as the only two teams to not drop a contest at the European Championship.
 
Through six games, Carosone is batting .273 with seven runs scored, a double and an RBI. The former three-time All-American holds a .467 on-base percentage and has reached safely in seven of her 15 plate appearances.
 
Italy leads the Group E standings at 2-0. The Czech Republic and Germany both stand at 1-1 with Spain rounding out the group at 0-2.  Italy will face Germany on Thursday at 5:30 a.m. CT in its final game of the second wave of round robin action.
 
Group F features the remaining teams that complete the top eight. The Netherlands leads Group F with its two wins Wednesday. France and Israel both finished with an 1-1 record with Russia going 0-2.
 
The top six teams will advance to the final round robin stage which begins Thursday afternoon and concludes Friday. The top six will battle for a spot in Saturday's championship and bronze medal games.
 
The remaining 11 teams competing will continue round robin play through Friday for spots in five additional placement games that will also be held Saturday.
 
Fans catch stream every game of the tournament on the WBSC Europe website.
 
The 2021 Women's European Championship serves as a qualifier for the World Games 2022, which will be held in Birmingham, Ala. in July 2022. The United States, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Chinese Taipei, China and Australia have already qualified for World Games 2022.
 
Italy clinched a spot for the Tokyo Olympics after winning the 2019 Europe/Africa Olympic qualifier and will open the games against the United States on Tuesday, July 20 at 10 p.m. CT. An official roster for the Italian Olympic team has not been announced at this time.