Alternative Titles:
クロスゲーム (Japanese) Genres: Drama Romance School Sports Episodes: 50 Episodes
Status: Finished Airing Date: Apr 05, 2009 The main character is Kou Kitamura, son of the owner of Kitamura Sports. In the same neighborhood is a batting center run by the Tsukishima family. Due to their proximity and the relationship between their businesses, the Kitamura and Tsukishima familes have been close for many years, with their children going back and forth between the two homes like extended family.[1] Because Kou and Wakaba were the same age and always together, Aoba was jealous of all the time Kou spent with her older sister. Aoba is a natural pitcher with excellent form, and Kō secretly trains to become as good as she was, even while publicly showing little interest in baseball. Then Wakaba dies in a swimming accident at a summer camp.

In junior high, Kou continues training in secret. When he enters high school, he joins the baseball club along with his childhood friends, Akaishi and Nakanishi. However, because they refuse to take evaluation tests, they are placed on the second-string "prefab" team under the old coach, which has to use the local junior high school field to practice. Additionally, many transfer students are brought in as ringers just to play baseball, all placed on the first-string team by the new head coach. This causes a rivalry between the two parts of the team. In the first summer practice game between them, the prefab team loses by only a narrow margin.

During the summer vacation, while the first-string team plays in the Koshien preliminaries, the prefab team practices at a recently closed elementary school under the guidance of a mysterious old man. Halfway through the summer vacation, the temporary principal (the regular principal had been sick for a few months) decides to dissolve the prefab team. However, the coach asks the temporary principal to let them play another practice game with the first-string team. If the prefab team lost, then the coach would leave and the prefab team would be dissolved.

With Aoba playing with them, the prefab team wins a narrow victory. Subsequently, the first-string team is dissolved, and the head coach and the temporary principal leave to work at other schools. Spring comes around again, Kō becomes a junior and Aoba becomes a sophomore.