| ShortSummary | - Going into the bottom of the 7th inning, Kanō finally goes into detail about how great Mihashi’s control really is, and Mihoshi’s substitute coach comes up with a plan. Abe tried to aim for a perfect game , but because Mizutani missed the ball, the perfect game was lost. Abe then was determined to have a no hit and no run game, but since Oda followed the coach’s plan, Oda was able to assist his teammate to run home. To make matters worse, Hatake was able to rally by hitting a home run, placing Mihoshi in the lead. However, despite the devastation, Mihashi still has the will to keep on pitching.
- Nishiura is desperate now to get their batters onto the plates in order to have a chance at winning. The team hangs in the game long enough for Tajima to have one more at bat chance, with two runners on third and second base, and two outs. Tajima is finally able to hit Takase’s sinker, thus allowing Nishiura to take back the lead with two runs.
- Tōsei still does not know what to make of Mihashi’s pitches, and Nishiura is still hanging on. Nishiura had a chance to get another run in, but the Tōsei battery once again made Tajima strike out. During the bottom of the 3rd, Mihashi’s female cousin, Ruri, arrived at the stadium to cheer for Mihashi.
- The Summer National Senior High School Baseball Championship Saitama Tournament is about to start. Overall, 170 schools in the area gathered together in order to draw lots to determine whom they would be playing against. Unfortunately, for Nishiura, Hanai’s bad luck with lottery picking landed them against Tōsei for their first game. In order to prepare, Momoe makes the team start practice at 5 in the morning since Nishiura’s field doesn’t have any lighting for the team to practice late. After coming back from the tournament meeting, Hamada comes to greet the team and officially reunites with his childhood friend Mihashi. In addition, Hamada asks permission to start a cheer squad on behalf of the baseball team.
- The first game of the summer tournament begins. Everyone is present, including the big crowd that Hamada recruited has to come to the game. Mihashi and the team are starting well; unfortunately, Tajima could not connect with any of the break balls thrown at him and gets struck out.
- Though Nishiura is playing a good defence, the lucky breaks that Tōsei keep on having make the members of Nishiura seem clumsy. The mound becomes slipper as the rain pours down harder, causing Mihashi to lose his footing and throw a wild pitch, giving Tōsei the opportunity to steal another run. To make maters worse, Mihashi’s fever is rising, but after Ruri tells him that Kanō and Mihoshi won their game, “Ren-Ren” has renewed strength and will to pitch the rest of the game.
- Tōsei continues with their attack plan, concentrating on hitting Mihashi’s curveball, and manage to get in one run. Nishiura gets into a little mishap, because Mihashi gets a nose bleed, making Abe worry about Mihashi’s condition and whether or not he can pitch. However, it was lucky that this didn’t happen until after the 5th inning, so Mihashi was able to rest for a bit while the field underwent maintenance. The 6th inning doesn’t progress much better for Nishiura, as Tōsei ties the score.
- On the way to practice, Mihashi meets Sakaeguchi and learns about the Senior League, Abe was teamed up with an “amazing pitcher”. During practice, Shiga-sensei teaches all of the players how to meditate, saying that it will help them build a relaxing reflex that they can use when they are in a pinch. Thus, the team starts to perform a 5-minute daily routine of meditating before practice. After a bit of practice, Momoe takes the team to go see a prefecture tournament game, Urawa Composite vs. Musashino First. There it turns out that the “amazing pitcher”, Haruna, pitches for Musashino.
- Abe’s past relationship with Haruna is revealed, showing the circumstances that led Abe to consider Haruna to be the worst pitcher instead of one of the best. However, instead of easing his worries after Abe’s explanation, Mihashi is still extremely intimidated by Haruna because he sees how much of an impact Haruna has been in Abe’s life.
- After getting on base because of a dead ball caused by the rain, Mihashi and the rest of his team work hard in order to get one more run before the inning ends.
- The practice game between Nishiura High and Mihoshi, Mihashi's old school, is about to start. However, before the game starts Mihashi loses his confidence and runs behind the club building. Hatake, the catcher from Mihoshi, followed him and begins to harass him to the point of threatening to break his arm for the lost games in middle school. It becomes apparent that Mihashi's lack of confidence stems from the constant bullying and scorn of his former teammates. Abe rescues Mihashi, he also convinced him to play and thus the game begins.
- After the game against Tōsei ends, Mihashi is taken home to rest since he has a fever. Abe, Hanai, Tajima and Izumi come over to visit him the next day to eat lunch with him and fill him in on what he missed during the previous afternoon’s end of game meeting. They all reassured him that everyone is very happy with his performance, and no one blames him for the runs that Tōsei got.
- Tajima once again strikes out, but is able to help his team mates successfully steal bases once he enters the coaching box again. With a nice hit from Mizutani, Suyama gains another point for Nishiura. Hanai also tries to steal another run on the same play, but is stopped by Kawai. Tajima feels down because he hasn’t been able to contribute any runs, but the other guys cheer him up by saying that they will get him another chance to bat once more.
- Kaguyama feels intimidated by Haruna’s presence on the baseball team for he feels that his positioned as the ace pitcher is threatened. Kaguyama wants to quit, but Haruna talks him out of it after telling Kaguyama about his own past.
- Tōsei comes back with a counter attack plan, playing to the basics and hitting grounders. Though Nishiura is still hanging onto their lead, they are playing hard defence. In addition, the team is starting to use their relaxing reflex, since there is a “third-base runner”.
- Now that they have the lead, Nishiura must make sure that they don’t allow any more runs. Abe wants Mihashi to keep pitching his fastball, but Mihashi feels insecure, and is practically out of gas. Even still, Mihashi does not want to get off the mount and sticks in there until the very end, only to fall to sleep immediately after the game.
- With nice team work, Nishiura is able to score two consecutive runs easily. Meanwhile, tension is rising between Kanō and the rest of his team. They end up having an argument, but eventually cooled down and resolved to win the game against Nishiura to prove once and for all that Kanō is the better pitcher. Witnessing from the sidelines, Mihashi seems to be longing to join back with his old team, but Abe decides to do his best to get Mihashi to acknowledge him and Nishiura as the team in which Mihashi belongs to.
- In order to be able to play two practice games, everyone on the team must be able to play at least two different positions. At first, Mihashi is against the idea, but after being reassured that he is the ace of the team and that Abe will always be his catcher, Mihashi accepts the circumstances. Thus, Hanai and Oki have the role of substitute pitchers, while the substitute catcher is Tajima. At the end of practice, the team unanimously voted for Hanai to become captain, and Abe and Sakaeguchi become vice-captains. With finals coming up, the team decides to study altogether to make sure that everyone passes. Taking this opportunity in the guise of studying, Mihashi invites everyone to come to his house on his birthday. The team ends up celebrating not only Mihashi’s birthday, but also the birthdays of Hanai and Suyama, whose birthdays had already passed. After eating, Abe shows the rest of the team how truly amazing Mihashi’s control truly is by having Mihashi pitch at his target.
- Mihashi is pitching nicely, outing all of Mihoshi’s batters so far. At the top of the 2nd inning, Tajima easily hits Kanō’s forkball. Hanai tries to compete with Tajima and do the same, but strikes out instead. Momoe then stresses the importance of the team to work together, because Tajima needs the help of his team mates in order to score runs since he is too small to hit home runs on his own. During the bottom of the 2nd, Kanō explains to Oda the secret behind Mihashi’s fastball, saying that it is “faster than a slow fastball”, which is why it is hard to hit.
- Tōsei takes several gamble plays and is able to get one more run in to take the lead once again. On the second attempt at a run, Mihashi paused briefly before throwing the ball back home, for he was afraid that Abe would be injured. Abe got angry with Mihashi but assured him that he would keep his promise not to be injured.
- The Tōsei batters are getting perplexed by Mihashi’s pitching since the balls appear to be easy, but are hard to connect. During Nishiura’s at bat, Tajima is able to steal Takase’s pitching motion, so he was able to guide Hanai into stealing second base. However, with two out, Tōsei tried to pick Mihashi out, since he was too far away from first base. It’s a race to see whether Tōsei can out Mihashi, or if Hanai can reach home first.
- Through good teamwork, Nishiura was able to rally and gain back the lead. After winning the game, Mihashi’s old teammates finally acknowledge their mistakes and ask for his forgiveness and to come back. Mihashi declines, but he says that he liked getting the chance to play a proper game of baseball with everyone. After returning to their training camp, Mihashi finally is able to fall asleep.
- The baseball team at Nishiura High School heads out to a training camp. As everyone is preparing for their first practice match against Mihashi's old school, Mihoshi High School, Abe realizes that the catcher's role is not just on the field but is also to encourage and to protect the pitcher and his well being.
- The team has been working hard to prepare for the game against Tōsei, to the point that even the team manager, Shinōka collapses from exhaustion because she had pulled an all-nighter writing a detailed report on Tōsei’s battery and batters. Everyone is being worked up about the game, including all of the boys’ mothers and the other members of the cheer squad and audience that Hamada was able to recruit.
- During practice, the team, with the addition of Hamada, continues to meditate, but this time start to actively train their relaxing reflex to trigger with the presence of a third base runner. Momoe and Shiga stress to Hamada the importance of the cheer squad, because the mood of the audience can make a break the team’s moral and ability to play.
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