While neither the Whatukura (men) nor the Mareikura (women) were able to prevent powerful Canterbury sides winning, respectively, the Jefferies Cup and the Jubilee Cup, they showed plenty of fight and played some good softball.
The Otago women were reminded of the home team’s strength when they were beaten 16-1 on the opening day.
They bounced back with a solid 5-3 win over Nelson, and played some excellent softball to beat the same opponent 12-1 in yesterday’s semifinal.
The Mareikura were in the fight after two innings of the final, trailing Canterbury just 4-2, before the Red Hawks applied the heat and charged to a 17-2 win.
"We really didn’t do a lot wrong — Canterbury just came up with some outstanding hitting," co-coach Doug Hill said.
"Sometimes there’s not a lot you can do to stop it, but we still played well despite the scoreline," he said.
Benka Page-Smith and Keira Harvey were two of the Mareikura’s best performers over the weekend, Hill said.
On the men’s side, the Whatukura won two of their four round robin games and only missed out on the final on bonus points.
After slipping to a 9-2 loss to Southland in the opening game, they got their bats humming with a 13-6 win over South Canterbury.
A 9-0 loss to the Canterbury Red Sox was followed by a thriller against Marlborough.
Scores were tied 4-4 after regulation innings, and while Marlborough scored first in extra innings, Otago replied with two runs to claim victory.
Hill said one of the top performers for the Whatukura was Logan Herbert, whose weekend at the plate included a big home run against South Canterbury.
Otago pitcher Jacob Wedlock also showed immense courage on the mound to pitch through a niggling knee injury.
"He still pitched the majority of their games and pitched in that win against a quality Marlborough side," Hill said.
