Pitcher Kaia Parnaby is among the 20 athletes who have made the Australia's provisional Olympic squad ©Getty Images

Australia have announced their 20-strong preliminary softball squad ahead of Tokyo 2020, with head coach Laing Harrow calling the selection process "difficult".

The roster will play in the National Professional Fastpitch (NPF) season as the Aussie Peppers, a team owned by Softball Australia who play their home matches in Minnesota.

The team will travel to the United States in late May ahead of the final selection in late June, where the squad will be cut down to 15.

"Our inaugural season with the Aussie Peppers of Minnesota in 2019 was crucial for our High Performance program which enabled us to go through the WBSC Asia/Oceania Olympic Qualifier event undefeated,” said David Pryles, Softball Australia's chief executive. 

“We are delighted to continue this relationship in 2020 to use it as a springboard for our Olympic campaign.”

Stacey Porter, seen in action at Beijing 2008, could feature at her third Olympics after making the preliminary squad for Tokyo 2020 ©Getty Images
Stacey Porter, seen in action at Beijing 2008, could feature at her third Olympics after making the preliminary squad for Tokyo 2020 ©Getty Images

Only two players have Olympic experience from 2008 - pitcher Justine Smethurst and Australian captain Stacey Porter, with the latter also featuring in 2004. 

"There was always going to be tough decisions to be made in a couple of positions, especially in an Olympic year,” said Harrow. 

“We had a lot of strong performers in the last couple of weeks out at Blacktown during the AP Cup and Summer Slam, and we’re confident in the squad we’ve picked to travel over to USA for the NPF.”

Australia have medalled in all four of softball's previous Olympic appearances, with their best performance being at Athens 2004 as they finished with silver after losing to the US in the final.