Mix‘ penultimate episode is pretty much the series stripped down to its most elemental form.  In much the same way, it depicts baseball stripped down to its most elemental form – mano a mano, an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel of the type we rarely see in MLB anymore.  There are those who claim that hitting a professionally-pitched baseball is the hardest act in sports, and while neither of these boys are professional pitchers, they both have the talent to be (if their arms don’t get wrecked first, but that’s all part of the drama too).

The fact is, my favorite part of the episode was when Ooyama-san teared up in the dugout watching Mita mow down his hitters ruthlessly as his own sprig of a hurler wears down before his eyes, before reminding Haruka that he used to break down every year watching a Koushien game even if he didn’t have any connection to the teams involved.  This is a man who loves baseball with all his heart, and those of us who share that love understood that this moment was written with us in mind.  To be able to watch such a game from the dugout is indeed something to get emotional over.

The fact is, if that was my favorite moment, I spent much of the episode/chapter hoping Touma would just give up a run and this would be over.  Ooyama-san’s instinct to pull Touma after nine innings was correct, but I’m not so sure I’d say the same about relenting before Souichirou’s pleas to let him make the call.  You’d like to think Sou (never mind Touma himself) would put Touma’s future ahead of the needs of the moment, but martial spirit and societal pressure do strange things to people.  I still remember Goro’s final game as a Mifune Dolphin, where he blew out his shoulder so badly he had to switch to being a lefty and yet was cast as a hero for it.  If the coach isn’t going to protect the kid, I don’t think we can expect the kids to be able to protect themselves.

It’s a hell of a tense duel, and easy to see how everyone involved would get caught up in the moment.  Mita manages a double off Tou, but then gets thrown out trying to steal third when Tou remembers Otomi telling him Hiroki used to be known for his speed and pitches out. In the next inning a pair of Meisei errors dig Touma into another whole, which he’s only able to scrape his way out of thanks to a quick glove and good fortune.  Meanwhile Mita is heavily winded from running the bases but unintentionally walks Imagawa rather than risk a loose pitch, uses the moment to gather his wind, and promptly strikes out the side.

Mita Hiroki is the monster here, Tachibana Touma the wunderkind and underdog with the weak supporting cast, and it really does look like only a matter of time before he succumbs to the heat, exhaustion and the limits of a first-year’s body.  But hell, with 20 Ks through 10 innings I shudder to think what Mita’s pitch count must be, and as the cocksure color man points out he is indeed a human being, a monster only in name.  He has limits too, and adrenaline can allow the body to keep performing past the point when doing so is causing it serious harm.  As the game enters the 12th inning, for both pitchers’ sakes (but especially Touma’s) that feeling returns – I just want it to be over.