A weakened Otago team had to settle for fifth place at the Jefferies Cup in Christchurch over the weekend.
However, Otago did finish the tournament on a high after beating Marlborough 8-7 in the playoff for fifth and sixth.
Earlier, Otago had a narrow 7-6 win against Canterbury under-19 during round-robin play but had losses to Nelson (6-4) and the Southland development team (8-1).
The Southland development team proved to be the tournament's surprise package, upsetting Southland 4-2 in one semifinal.
The Southlanders were no match for Canterbury in the final.
The Red Sox cruised to a comfortable 7-0 win for a 16th consecutive title.
The powerful Canterbury lineup thrashed the Black Sox 15-5 on Saturday to underline its ability.
Despite missing a place in the semifinals, the Otago camp was reasonably pleased with its performance, New Zealand scorer and Otago stalwart Sandy Wallace said.
"Considering they were missing some experienced members and it was a young side, it was too bad," Wallace said.
The province was without key players Scott Cartwright and Jamie Robinson.
The pair helped Otago reach the final last season but Cartwright has shifted to Wellington and Robinson was unavailable but will return for the national provincial championships.
In their absence, pitcher Ben Watts had a standout tournament and was named in the South Island all-star team which played the Black Sox on Sunday.
