Start to finish, that episode was full of surprises.

First off – should there be a rule to prevent what we saw with Sakura in this episode?  There is – in Little League, where pitcher usage is now strictly limited.  Middle school is a higgledy-piggledy – both in Japan and the U.S..  Individual states and even school districts in the States have restrictions, but there’s nothing nationally.  In Japan the nation’s largest tournament for first-year junior high players adopted an 85 pitch limit, though nothing regarding consecutive days – and there are no overriding rules for middle school nationwide.  A group of five rubber-ball leagues did pass the following measures in 2014:

1. Each pitcher cannot pitch more than 7 innings a day and total of 10 innings in 2 consecutive days. A pitcher who pitched 2 games or more in a day, and a pitcher who pitched total of more than 5 innings in 2 consecutive days cannot pitch or play catcher on the following day. Fraction of an inning shall be counted as an inning in full.
2. Pitching full force in training shall not exceed 70 pitches per day and the total of 350 pitches a week. Pitcher shall not pitch full force for a day or more in a week.   

Mandated by rule or not, my attitude towards this is simple.  Under no circumstances should any pitcher – much less a child in middle school – start three days in a row.  If it were up to me even two days would be strictly limited (say, no more than an inning on the second day).  It is fair to ask a kid Daigo’s age, acting as a coach, to exercise that kind of judgment here?  No, probably not – especially when it’s clear he felt pressured by Sakura and his sister and mother to not upset Sakura by starting Chisato in this game.  But that’s just evidence, I suppose, that for all his dedication and baseball savvy, an 8th-grader is not a full substitute for an adult coach (not that they aren’t the primary abusers of young pitchers, sadly).

So in sum, I hated that Sakura started the game.  But that was what it was.  The game itself was a bit of a dodgy affair, too, partly but not only because of the dodgy weather conditions.  I’ll say this for Anita – she has all the delicacy of a sledgehammer to the elbow, but you don’t ever have to doubt her commitment.  She called out Tao and Yayoi for blowing off Daigo’s call to scout the Eihou game, and quite rightly too.  And when the two of them make it clear (both with their play and their demeanor) that they’re not all that bothered by what happens in the semi-final she lets them have it.  And good for her, indelicate as it was.

I’m fiercely competitive, so there’s not much that pisses me off more than when I’m busting my ass trying to win and teammates are mailing it in.  The problem with a 9-player roster of course is that there’s no flexibility – they can act how they like, but Yayoi and Tao have to be in the lineup.  It’s especially galling when the ones mailing it in are among the most talented on the team – as Yayoi at the very least is.  As Sakura gives it everything she’s got in a situation where she shouldn’t even be pitching Yayoi and Tao (she didn’t slip in no mud, believe me) lark through five innings where the run their errors allowed is the only one on the board.

It could have gotten very ugly, but I support Anita confronting Tao in the dugout after that incident.  And if Yayoi hadn’t overheard that conversation I doubt she’d have been drawn into the moment enough to hit the game-tying home run off that zaku of a pitcher.  That sets the stage for the forgotten Fuurins, Seira and Hiromu, to finally impact a game.  The opposing manager inserts a lefty and intentionally passes Tanba, based on his size and the fact that Seira is a lefty, but his assumptions prove faulty.  Tanba is only too thrilled not to have to hit, and Seira feasts on southpaws for some reason.  It’s not a shocker that Fuurin should win this matchup, but the circumstances were certainly unexpected.

We’ll see whether there’s any hangover with team unity after that dustup in the dugout, but the real surprise is still to be revealed.  My Kanji isn’t great but that sure didn’t look like “Eihou” on Mayumura Michiru’s uniform – is she the secret weapon of the unknown team Eihou faces in the other semi-final?  That would certainly explain why her presence takes Daigo by surprise, though if in fact she’s responsible for somehow upsetting Eihou, she can’t possibly start both games on the same day.  Can she?  I guess after Sakura anything is possible – or maybe the second game will be rained out, allowing her to face Fuurin (and Sakura).