ACT under-19 men's coach Andrew Kirkpatrick lauded his team's performance in finishing runner-up at the national championships.
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The hosts could not match it with a red-hot NSW side in the grand final, going down 7-4 at the Hawker International Softball Centre on Wednesday.
It was just the second loss of the tournament for the ACT with both coming at the hands of its nearest rival.
The ACT had to back up from a high-scoring 17-10 win against Queensland on Wednesday morning in the preliminary final to book its spot in the decider.
Australian representative pitcher Kirkpatrick, in his first year coaching the team, said the loss in the final would not take the gloss off a successful week.
''I'm very proud of what they've done and what they've achieved from where they were last year,'' Kirkpatrick said.
''It was tough losing that last game, we just couldn't hold the runs out. We did well as a batting team, but we just couldn't get through the workload of two tough games back to back.
''That was a situation we put ourselves in for losing to NSW the night before.''
The final was a tight affair. The ACT held a 3-1 advantage before NSW hit truly to score six of the final seven runs of the game.
The ACT under-19 girls team rounded out its competition with a 5-3 loss to Western Australia in the play-off for third place. Queensland won the Eleanor McKenzie Shield with a 6-0 victory against NSW.
