Olympics 2020

Softball Returns to Olympics

2 min read
FILE - USA Softball pitcher Cat Osterman pitches in an exhibition softball game against USSSA Pride in Oklahoma City, Okla., in this Friday, June 4, 2021, file photo. U.S. coach Ken Eriksen predicts tight competition in softball as the sport returns to the Olympics for the first time since 2008. The 15-woman U.S. roster includes 38-year-old left-hander Cat Osterman, the last holdover from the 2004 gold medal-winning team, and 35-year-old left-hander Monica Abbott, who joined Osterman on the 2008 team. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

Ken Eriksen predicts tight competition in softball as the sport returns to the Olympics.

"Over the last probably 16 years you've seen the world catch up in softball because of the opportunities that USA Softball provided in the teaching and the clinics overseas, but also the colleges started to recruit some really good athletes overseas and develop them," the U.S. coach said.

Seventeen of the 19 players currently on Mexico's roster are listed on the team's website as living in the United States.

Italy's roster includes second baseman Emily Carosone, born in Orlando, Florida.

Infielder Kelsey Harshman, who was born in Tucson, Arizona, is part of a Canada team filled with U.S. college veterans that include Joey Lye, who quit as Bucknell's coach to compete for the Olympic team.

"And so that's where those countries have caught up quite a bit," said Eriksen, the head coach since 2011 after nine years as an assistant. "Australia has a great developmental program and Japan, a very disciplined and structured organization. So this will be an Olympics unlike any other. I think everybody right now is not that farly separated as they used to be."

The technological revolution that has altered Major League Baseball also has impacted Olympic softball. Eriksen sees that both with South Florida, where he has been coach since 1996, and the U.S.

"We play Australia and we play Japan and we play Canada and Mexico -- a lot. So we have pretty good data and the analytics on teams that we play," Eriksen said.

Starting at /week.