Battery

Takumi begins attending Nitta Higashi Junior High and signs up with Coach Tomura to be on the baseball team. However, he also draws the ire of the Vice-Captain Nobunishi over something trivial. Tomura sees Takumi pitch on his first day of practice, and he tells Takumi to cut his hair. Takumi refuses, so Go responds by...

Takumi goes home and finds out that Tomura is his grandfather Youzo's former student. Takumi doesn't like that the upperclassmen have ended practice early because it started raining, This leads them to begin harrassing Takumi. Meanwhile, Tomura goes to visit Youzo after experiencing Takumi's pitches for himself from the batter's box.

After finishing practice, Takumi is ganged up and beaten by a few of his teammates inside the dark equipment room. Go is the one who finds him laying there, so he brings Takumi back to his home to treat and spend the night. But the school soon learns of the incident, and the baseball team must face their punishment.

Tomura tries catching for Takumi. They resume their regular baseball team activities, but Takumi acts defiantly even to Tomura. Tomura proposes an exhibition game with Yokoteni Junior High, but the principal tells him no. However, the captain Kaionji devises a plan.

Takumi didn't pitch as hard as he could against Yokoteni Junior High's slugger Kadowaki, leaving Go with mixed feelings. Meanwhile, Kadowaki visits his teammate Mizukaki and tells him that he wants to play an unsanctioned game with Nitta Higashi. Mizukaki is interested in Kadowaki's enthusiasm, however...

Mizukaki tilts Takumi and Go's battery off their game. What's more, they offend Yokote's coach, and the game itself is called off. Go and Takumi's teammates try to help them patch things up between them, but they can't be persuaded.

Kadowaki and Mizugaki find themselves playing some backyard baseball with the Nitta Higashi first years. Seiha is the pitcher. Everyone is enjoying this unexpected get-together. Later, Kaionji visits the baseball team for the first time in a while and stands in the batter box to experience Takumi's surprising pitches.

Kadowaki and Mizugaki are in a disarray, Kaionji and the other seniors graduate, and the Nitta Higashi baseball players are all doing voluntary practice to prepare for their rematch. Go tells Takumi that he is going to continue playing catcher. Spring has arrived for the Nitta Higashi Junior High and Yokoteni Junior High students.

The last Sunday of March, the day of their rematch with Yokoteni Junior High finally arrives. Tomura, Youzo, Seiha, and even the principal have come to watch. The game is being played underneath the early cherry blossoms. Takumi throws Kadowaki the first pitch, the man who has been waiting for this moment for so long.