Both the men (Jefferies Cup) and the women (Jubilee Cup) won just one of their games at the tournament.
Of the two sides, the men had reason to feel the more optimistic despite the poor results.
Otago suffered its traditionally heavy (9-0) loss to the powerful Canterbury Red Sox but put up a good fight in losses to Nelson (3-0) and Southland (4-3).
"We were a bit of a mixed bag. We would definitely like to have won one of those games," Otago manager Aran Bailey said.
"But we were pretty competitive and we are definitely improving."
Bailey said Nelson was expected to do well with veteran Black Sox pitcher Marty Grant on the mound, and Otago had runners on base in the final inning. Otago actually out-hit Nelson. The loss to Southland was slightly galling as Otago had won the Bates Shield clash between the southern rivals before the tournament.
Otago out-hit Southland 8-7, with the highlight a three-run homer from Scott Cartwright in the bottom of the first inning.
Otago's sole success was a 9-0 win against the Canterbury Under-19 side.
Bailey said two of the best individual performances were those of batters Cartwright and Chris Anderson in the Nelson loss. Both hit two-from-three, a fine effort against a pitcher of the calibre of Grant.
Otago women's coach Kath McGilbert was in no mood to mince words as she reflected on a disappointing weekend for her side.
Otago beat Marlborough 11-7 but slumped to heavy defeats against Canterbury (15-0), Southland (16-2) and Nelson (11-4), and also lost to Canterbury Under-19 (4-0).
"I'm actually quite disappointed," McGilbert said from Christchurch.
"The team really didn't perform as well as I had hoped. We didn't get bat to ball often enough to give ourselves a chance, really.
"Maybe it reflects the lack of competition in Otago softball or the fact our batters just don't get enough practice against really strong pitching."
McGilbert said the significant individual highlight was the effort of Kate Brewerton, who hit in the high-300s and was one of the top eight batters at the tournament.
She was also pleased with the efforts of the under-17 players in her squad.
"A couple of our young girls came on and pitched a couple of innings against Canterbury and they performed well considering they were up against really experienced national league players."
The next major event on the softball calendar is the national league, held over the weekends of January 17-18 (men in Auckland, women in Christchurch) and January 31-February 1 (men in Christchurch, women in Wellington).
A sprinkling of Otago players will be included in the Southern Pride teams but they will rely heavily on the draft to be competitive.
