Ace of the Diamond

Kominato Ryosuke returns home after being away for 10 months and bonds with his younger brother Haruichi.

Despite being a trouble-maker, Kuramochi gets an offer to play in Seidou High School.

The story of Kawakami Norifumi during his first year in Seidou High.

Game set. Eijun Sawamura, the pitcher of a novice junior high baseball team, meets with a bitter walk-off loss. For Sawamura, that became his last game in junior high, so he sets a new goal of going to the nationals in high school with his teammates. As he begins his hard quest on studying, a guest arrives unannounced. Her name is Rei Takashima, and she is the assistant director of the prestigious Seidou High School Baseball Team. Takashima invites Sawamura to Seidou after seeing his potential, but Sawamura's reply was far from what she had expected.

Kazuya Miyuki becomes the catcher for Sawamura in a contest against Seido's dangerous clean-up batter, Kiyokuni Azuma. As Eijun tries to pitch down the middle, he finds himself tense and unable to control the ball. Kazuya immediately calls time and comes out to give him some words of encouragement. The words have the desired effect as Eijun finds more control than ever before and unveils a dangerous weapon he didn't know he had. Seeing how people like Kazuya can alter his pitching, Eijun decides to come to Seido as long as he can become the ace of the team.

Eijun is nervous about rooming with older teammates, but they make him feel a too little at home on his first night. Eijun ends up oversleeping and shows up late when it's time to meet Coach Tesshina Katoka, a former Japanese pro pitcher. Miyuki also shows up late, but he uses Sawamura as a decoy to sneak into his line. Katoka shows no mercy and says Eijun can never become a pitcher if he can't show up on time. He also makes Miyuki run laps. Sawamura is determined to prove he can be the ace though, so Coach Katoka gives him a special challenge, saying until he can complete this challenge, he can't play in a baseball game for Seidou.

At the Baseball Kingdom magazine office, Mine looks back to the summer tournament. The game between Yakushi and Seido was an exciting watch. Seido played their pitcher relay in order to face Yakushi's powerful batting lineup.

Inashiro and Seido met in the final. Inashiro played around their unparalleld ace, Narumiya. Whereas Seido relied on their 4-man pitcher relay. The first-year pitchers, Furuya and Sawamura, played key roles in the game.

Tanba got a leg cramp and couldn't continue, so Sawamura came out at the bottom of the seventh. Yuki turned the game around in the top of the eighth. Sawamura continued to pitch well throughout the bottom, but...

The Seido baseball club has been invited to the spring invitational at the hallowed Koshien Stadium. Sawamura will finally stand on the mound! Standing between Seido and the national title are the winners of last year's summer tournament Komadai Fujimaki and their unstoppable ace Masamune Hongo. Can Seido triumph over Komadai? It's the start of another heated battle in youth baseball!

In the second round of the invitational, Seido faces Nihon Shono. After throwing a 150 km/h pitches to shut down batters in the first round, Furuya has become the darling of the press and the fans. Which team will advance to the quarterfinals? What about the other team from Tokyo, Yakushi led by Todoroki Raichi? And what of the summer tournament winners, Komadai Fujimaki? The quarterfinals are taking shape.

It's ninth day and fourth round of the spring invitational and Seido will finally face Komadai Fujimaki. It's Masamune Hongo's first start of the tournament, and he has not given up a single run. How will the Seido batters counter his 150 km/h fastballs and sharp splitters? Meanwhile, Furuya is starting for Seido. How will he fare against the Komadai Fujimaki batters?

Seido takes on Norikane High as Sawamura struggles to live up to the weight of the team's ace number.

Ichidaisan High faces off against Yakushi, with Amahisa revealing a new pitch in his showdown with Raichi.

The showdown between Amahisa and Raichi kicks off the second half of the Yakushi-Ichidaisan match.