Hidehiko was a pitching legend and his daughter Ryo has inherited his gift, playing on the local sandlot she can strike out any challenger with ease.
A mysterious boy enters the batter's cage, taking up the challenge against Ryo; the next day, Ryo is offered a scholarship for a prestigious girls' school.
Ryo gets to see Izumi play tennis for a while, but there are other important things on her mind, like her school interview.
Coach Kido is asked to recruit a master athlete named Seira, who was once rumored to be Olympic-bound until she turned delinquent.
Ryo tries to convince a girl named Koharu, who once mastered the Wave Motion Swing, to join Kisaragi's team.
Two new girls, Mao and Yoko, might join the Kisaragi team, but Mao is too timid to catch the ball and Yoko's resume seems a bit fishy.
The Kisaragi Girls' team is still one person short; their best hope lies with Izumi, the star tennis player, but she has less than zero interest in helping Ryo.
Izumi issues a challenge to Ryo, pitting her batting against Ryo's pitching, and if Izumi wins, the Kisaragi Girls' Baseball team must disband.
The time has come for Ryo and Izumi to have their showdown; Ryo has experience on her side, but Izumi has confidence, an unbeatable will, and some personal coaching from Takasugi.
The Kisaragi girls are about to play their first real game as a team, but they're still one person short, which leads to team manager Nene stepping up to the plate.
The Kisaragi girls must beat Rinkai High, one of the best teams in the country, to be allowed in the league.
Ryo wants to know the secret behind her father's legendary pitch, the Lightning Ball; the only one who can teach her is Coach Kido, but he has her plowing up a vegetable garden by hand instead of practicing on the mound.
The newly-formed Kisaragi team doesn't stand a chance against Rinkai, a veteran team that's over 100 members strong; if the girls want to win, it'll take a special kind of strategy that only they can pull off.
As Ryo lies in a hospital bed, her life fading after saving two stranded children, the team comes together to be by her side.
Kanako's father, who has always been against a girls' baseball team, is about to hold a meeting to decide the Kisaragi team's fate.
The girls are all fired up and ready for training camp, but before they go, Izumi treats Takasugi to a homemade dinner along the riverbank at sunset.
Everyone's working hard at training camp, except for Izumi, who is distracted by her knowledge of Takasugi and Ryo.
Takasugi and Ryo take shelter from the rain in an old cabin, giving them the chance to speak their feelings.
Yuki always kept to herself, rarely speaking to anyone but her little doll, Fifi; but now Fifi has gone missing, and to everyone's shock, Yuki is despondent, weeping genuine tears.
The regional preliminaries have begun, and the Kisaragi girls' first opponent is Hori Private, a school full of thugs and bruisers.
Though the girls are racking up win after win, Coach Kido and Seishiro can tell that something's not quite right with Ryo.
The Kisaragi Girls are facing their biggest challenge yet, but are unable to focus; Koharu is worried about her father, and Ryo is still reeling from the night before.
With their backs against the wall and any hope of victory fading fast, the girls' path becomes as clear as it's ever been: be truthful with each other, trust one another, and fight as hard as you can until the very end.