Forza Carosone: Emily Carosone 'blessed' to make Olympic debut

AUBURN, Ala. – Emily Carosone has played in the Women’s College World Series … twice. It was her clutch piece of hitting that secured first place for Team Italy in the 2021 European Championship earlier this month. But she’s about to embark on what might be the crowning achievement of her career to this point – the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.

“Going to the Olympics, you have six teams with 15 people on them. That's 90 people in the whole entire world, and I'm one of those 90,” Carosone. “It doesn't make sense to me. It really doesn't. I remember staying up at night thinking, ‘Why me? What was it about me?’ And I believe that it's just to give glory to God. I really do.

“I've had a lot of people ask me, ‘Is this a dream come true for you?’ My honest answer is no. I never had this dream because in reality I never thought it was possible for somebody like me. Honestly, it's a blessing." 

For Carosone, who graduated high school in a class of 24, the College World Series might not have seemed possible either, especially after Auburn failed to make the SEC Tournament her freshman year. But the three-time All-American went to Oklahoma City back-to-back years with the Tigers and still stands as the program’s all-time leader in career batting average, hits, runs scored and on-base percentage. 

The Olympics will be no different from the College World Series or even from her days of playing in high school. The game hasn’t changed. No matter how the big stage is, it’s still softball.

There is one major difference playing for Team Italy – the language barrier.

“My Italian is bad, very bad,” she joked. “I've learned a few words here and there but not many. Our captain on the team, Erika Piancastelli, is bilingual, and she usually translates everything for me and a couple of the Americans that are on the team. I can honestly say I would not know what's going on if it wasn't for her. I would be completely lost.”

So how did Carosone, now an assistant coach with Auburn softball, end up playing for Italy? It was about three years in the making. She had family from Italy on her dad’s side but tracking down the marriage certificates and securing dual citizenship was no easy task.

Neither was obtaining an Italian passport, but Carosone finally got cleared to join the Italian team in 2019, the day after she was traded to the USSSA Pride. She had to pick up and leave her new team and fly to Rome where she hopped on another flight to Ronchi, practiced once with Team Italy, and then flew to the Netherlands to play in the Olympics qualifier.

“My goal was just to help out as much as I could at the time,” said Carosone who recorded two hits in Italy’s 5-0 victory over Great Britain to clinch their spot in Tokyo.

Two years later, as Italy prepares to play its first game at this year’s Olympics, Carosone has gone from “awkward” newcomer at the qualifier in Netherlands to one of the lynchpins in the lineup. She’s found a new family amongst her coaches and teammates, and that was never more evident than last summer when head coach Erico Obletter passed away from COVID-19. She hurt along with everybody else on the team.

“He was our heart and our soul,” Carosone said. “With him passing, it gives us something to fight for – more than just Italy itself and more than just our teammates. It gives us something more important, which is him and where he got all of us.”

Carosone and her Italian teammates will open the Tokyo Olympics against Team USA. Though the game is set for Wednesday morning in Japan, first pitch will be Tuesday at 10 p.m. CT for those watching in Alabama. And plenty of Auburn fans will be watching, cheering for Carosone and Team Italy even if they are playing against the Red, White and Blue. It’s the Auburn Family after all, and she is one of their own.

“The Auburn Family. Every college talks about the family that they're at, but I strongly believe that Auburn lives by it,” Carosone said. “So the fact that they are Team Italy at the moment because of me just shows how great the Auburn community is.”

So what should Auburn fans know about this Italian team before Tuesday’s game?

“I can tell you that Italians are pretty stubborn,” Carosone said. “I don’t mean that negatively. I mean that positively. We are gritty, we are relentless, and no matter what the scoreboard is, we're still fighting. Even if the other team thinks it's done and over, we're still fighting.”

Not unlike some Auburn teams in the past. Ever to conquer. Never to yield. 

Playing in the Olympics still hasn’t sunk in yet for Carosone. She says it probably won’t until she takes the field for the first time or until Friday’s Opening Ceremonies. But she and her Italian teammates are not content with simply making it to Tokyo. They have a goal of winning an Olympic medal, which would be the first in the country’s history.

“We have a goal, we want to win a medal, and it's going to be tough. It's not going to be easy,” Carosone said. “But we want to represent Italy, we want to represent Enrico, we want to represent each other. So I can say firmly that we are not the team that is just happy to be there.”