Despite taking an early lead against Japan, the Australian’s were unable to convert scoring opportunities, something Aussie Spirit captain Stacey Porter says will be a priority in their second round.

When asked about what needs to change against the Italians, Porter said that will be determined in their review post game.

“They’re a different type of ball club, we’ll go home and do some scouting on them and refresh that,” said Porter.

“We’ll be hoping to convert runs, we left a few runners on base against Japan so hopefully tomorrow that’s a different story.”

Both nations are coming off seeing two of the world’s most dominant pitchers in Yukiko Ueno for Japan and Monica Abbott for USA who helped lead her team to a 2-0 win over Italy.

Italian right-fielder Andrea Howard was positive following their shutout and said they’ll look to get their bats hot against the Aussie Spirit battery.

“We just need to string together hits,” said Howard.

“We have another game and the rest of the tournament to do that, so I’m very excited with how we played today and how the rest of the tournament is going to go for us.

“We have some minor tweaks to fix but I’m very much looking forward to the rest of the Games.”

They’ll have their work cut out for them however if Olympic history is anything to go by.

Italy and Australia have met twice on sport’s biggest stage where the Aussie Spirit have emerged victorious on both occasions, shutting the Europeans out in both matchups.

The Azzure are no strangers to the Australian style of play, their first choice pitcher Greta Cecchetti, Ilaria Cacciamani and Marta Gasparotto have all recently played in Australia’s National Championship as recently as 2019.

On the flipside, Jade Wall, Ellen Roberts and Clare Warwick have all spent time playing professionally in the Italian League.

The Aussie Spirit get game two underway at (4:00pm AEST). Watch live on 7plus.