Whether it be State of Origin, international selection or players being traded is the mix of former rivals coming together.

That was no different for Matt KcKenna and Michael Berndt, who line up against each other in the Orange District Softball Association's under 16 side.

"He plays for Bletchington," Berndt said, turning up his nose.

"You play for Cardinals," McKenna shot back in a joking tone of disgust.

While their rivalry on the pitch is certainly real, the duo line up together frequently in Orange sides and - last week - in the NSW Country Gold side as part of the 2020 U14 Boys' Regional Softball Championship.

More than putting aside their differences, the pair work in tandem on the pitch, with McKenna donning the catching glove and Berndt pitching.

"I catch to Michael in the district side so I know a lot about him as a pitcher and know how to read him," McKenna said.

McKenna normally catches to NSW gun Caden Keed, too, so knows a good pitcher when he sees one, and Berndt is a good one in his eyes - although the pitcher jokes he's a "pretty bad" catcher before cracking a grin.

"Nah he's pretty good," Berndt said.

The two performed well on the diamond, too, helping guide their side to fifth place in what was a disrupted carnival.

The championship was slated to be hosted in Canberra, but had to be moved to Blacktown due to choking bushfire smoke, where in an ironic twist games were washed out and delayed, which McKenna said was "a bit annoying".

"It was good," he said of the carnival outside the weather.

"It was hard not knowing out teammates because we didn't have too many training sessions, we only had two (sessions) to get to know them and then we had local stuff.

"They had stuff in Wagga and Newcastle but here it was just the two of us."

They were reasonably happy with their performance, but it only picked up when they knocked the otherwise undefeated Western Australia off its perch when the side clicked.

"We beat WA who were undefeated through the tournament and that's when we got stronger as a team," McKenna said.

"We stopped doing silly stuff in the box when we were batting.

"When it was a ball we'd leave it whereas in other games we would swing at it, we'd chase the high pitch or the low pitch on it but we made sure we'd hit the ball."

Berndt said the ending of the tournament was a positive, but the lift in performance showed the side "could have done better".

"In a lot of games we were down by five or six or even 10 and we'd come back and get within one or two in the last innings so if we started off like we finished we'd get over a lot more teams," he said.

The two will now turn their sights to selection for Orange in the under 14 State Championships in August, with the team to be picked in February.