Scott Cartwright hopes exposure to elite competition will help Otago's younger softballers learn what is required at the top level.
Cartwright led his Dodgers, the Dunedin champions, to the national club championships in Christchurch last week.
In an extremely strong field dominated by traditionally powerful clubs and laced with Black Sox, the Dodgers lost seven of their eight games, failing to score in three of them.
But Cartwright, the veteran all-rounder and Dunedin softballer of the year, said there was no doubt the trip had been worthwhile.
"The whole point of us going was to give our young guys a chance to see what the game is really about," he said yesterday.
"It's the best tournament in the country, so it's always worthwhile to go to it."
The Dodgers side included the Watts brothers, rising pitcher Ben (17) and Cameron (15), as well as youngsters from Central Otago (Scott Cameron) and the Ellis Park club (Ryan Williams).
Ben Watts pitched against three top clubs - the Mt Albert Ramblers, Poneke-Kilbirnie and the Waitakere Bears - and held his own.
Only once in eight games did the Dodgers manage to score more than one run, in a 5-3 loss to Christchurch club Albion.
"Our guys struggled against top pitching. We just don't see that standard regularly. But we got better as the week went on."
The highlight of the Dodgers' week was beating their Southland rivals, the Demons, 3-1 on the opening day.
The tournament was won by the Hutt Valley Dodgers, who beat the PCU Devils (Canterbury) 8-6 in the final on Saturday.
