Italy national baseball team

Italy national baseball team is currently ranked 13th in the IBAF world baseball rankings and is the second strongest in Europe to the Netherlands. The team is governed by the Confedetarion of European Baseball.

European Baseball Championship

Italy won the inaugural European Baseball Championship of 1954 and has been constantly posting victories with 8 gold medals, 15 silver and 3 bronze. The team has already qualified for the 2009 European Baseball Championship.

Intercontinental Cup

The first ever Intercontinental Cup of 1973 was hosted by Italy when they finished 6th while Italy's best finish was 4th in the 1983 games in Belgium and 6th in 2006.

Olympics

Italy have consistently qualified for the Summer Olympics since 1992, except for 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. In 1984, Italy defeated the Dominican Republic 1-2 while Italy's best finish in the Olympics is 6th place.

Baseball World Cup

Initially, when the World Cup was called the Amateur World Series, Italy finished 4th in 1974 while they also finished 4th in 1998 when they were the host nation. Italy also hosted the 1978 and 1988 games. In the 2007 installation, Italy finished 6th after Panama and caused the only defeat for USA.

Italy is set to host the 2009 World Cup as part of a European event and will host the second and the final round of the tournament.

World Baseball Classic

Competing in the inaugural 2006 World Baseball Classic, Italy’s roster included a minimum 23 players who were born in the USA, and faced Venezuela, the Dominican Republic & Australia in the Pool D.

Though Italy posted a10-0 win over Australia, they suffered heavy defeats from Venezuela (6-0) and the Dominican Republic (8-3) thus failing to qualify for the second round.

In the 2009 installation, Italy was considered to be an underdog in Pool C against Canada, USA and Venezuela. Though suffering a defeat against Venezuela in their first game, Italy surprisingly beat the favorites Canada, winning 6-2 and eliminating the Canadian team. However, Italy suffered another defeat against Venezuela and were therefore ousted from the tournament.