That was illustrated again on Saturday as Dodgers, the regular-season champions, and close rivals Cardinals went head to head in a titanic Champions Cup final utterly dominated by the men on the mound.
Dodgers squeaked home 2-1, scoring the winning run in the second tiebreaker inning.
Champion hurler Ben Watts pitched a full game for Dodgers, coughing up a single hit and striking out 16 batters.
Equally impressive was young Cardinals star Mitchell Finnie, who pitched all nine innings. He had some control issues, with walks and a couple of hit batters, but conceded just two hits and struck out seven.
If their pitching efforts were not enough, Watts and Finnie scored the only two runs inside the regulation seven innings.
The opening run was scored in the bottom of the second inning, when Watts - who had reached base on a walk and progressed twice, on a wild pitch and a pass ball - tore home on an error behind the plate.
Cardinals tied it up in the fourth when Finnie also scored on an error.
To the tiebreaker it went, with both sides getting a chance with a runner starting on second base.
Dodgers appeared to have the game won in the eighth, when Cam Watts singled, Ben Watts was intentionally walked and Hoani Iva-Keen ripped a sizzling line drive. But the catch was taken and the double play made.
Finally, in the second extra inning, rookie Jake Burtenshaw bunted to advance Iva-Keen to third, and Iva-Keen scored the winning run on a wild pitch.
''It was nice the final was played the way it was, with some good, close softball,'' Dodgers coach Aran Bailey said.
''Cardinals have been a good team all year. We've played pretty well, and it was nice to finish with a win.''
Watts boys scooped the major individual end-of-season awards. Ben was named best elite player, top pitcher (1.15 ERA) and top batter (.491 average), and younger brother Cam was named MVP.
Finnie was named most promising player.
The Otago Softball Association was celebrating its 75th jubilee, and named players of the decade to mark the occasion.
They were Des McCammon (1953-63), Barbara Simpson (1963-73), Ellie Mockford (1973-83), John Scholten (1983-93), Mere Tarapi (1993-2003) and Mike Crowley (2003-13).
OSA operations manager Jill Johnson said it was a ''great weekend with lots of stories from the past talked over on both Friday and Saturday night.''
Johnson was overwhelmed when a member of the public came forward with a pile of photos and documents from the early days of Otago women's softball.
''It included a copy of the first meeting in 1940, which was pretty exciting,'' Johnson said.
''Reading the meeting minutes from the following 10 years or so was pretty funny.''
