Well everyone, this is the last 4 episodes of Hachigatsu no Cinderella Nine as Satogahama High School are participating in the national girls’ baseball tournament.
But first, Tsubasa Arihara and her fellow teammates will go to a training camp where it’ll held at a temple. As you can see, the owner of the temple is happy to see them train at their place since her father (who was a head priest) loves baseball.
Oh yeah and since they’ll train at a temple, Tsubasa and the rest will have to greet the head priest first.
And there he is as the head priest is happy to see the girls playing his favorite sport. Now then, time to start their training camp!
So first things off, the Satogahama High School’s girls’ baseball club will not only have to practice their batting skills, but also fielding as their defense is a bit lousy. Hence, Tsubasa and her friends got stomped on their first official game.
Also, Ryo Shinonome trains Maiko Kurashiki on her pitching skill because she’ll become the starting pitcher from now on.
Oh yeah, and Ryo offered Yuuki Nozaki some training on become a pitcher since she played dodgeball before, but Yuuki declined the offer as she’s scared on hitting a wild fastball to the batter’s head.
But speaking of Shinonome, she told everyone that the high priest is nowhere to be seen. Of course, the rest of them saw the high priest and Ayaka Nakano has the footage to prove that.
Except that the high priest is not there in the video. Wait a minute, I have a bad feeling about this…
Oh, and it gets worse when the temple got a blackout which scared everyone. Well, except for Yuuki Nozaki in which she got startled a bit, but wasn’t screaming like the rest of her teammates.
Then, Yuuki noticed the head priest as he called her out for a favor. Man, I don’t know what he’s planning to do towards Nozaki.
Turns out that the head priest asked Yuuki to throw a mean fastball and while she’s hesitant to do it, the head priest insists on letting Nozaki pitch as hard as she can. He’ll just pretend as a ghost so that Nozaki won’t be worried about hitting someone.
With that said, Yuuki Nozaki throws a mean fastball towards the strike zone. See, her pitch didn’t hit the head priest so it’s all good for Nozaki.
But afterwards, the head priest disappears. Wait a minute, don’t tell me that the priest is actually dead all along and what Tsubasa and the rest saw was his ghost?
Anyways, the training camp has ended on a bizarre note and let’s hope that they become better for their next game!
Now then, here’s Tsubasa Arihara where she’ll announce the lineup for the upcoming nationals.
With Kana Tsukumo and Maiko Kurashiki joining the baseball club, they’ll join the starting lineup as right fielder and pitcher respectively, all while the remaining ones gets shuffled around.
This means that Tomoe Kawakita and Akane Ukita will not be in the lineup as they’ll act as base coaches instead. Sure that they can’t play as starters, but Tomocchi and Akane will play a bigger role on leading their team to victory.
But first, it’s time for another exhibition match in preparation for the national tournament.
This time, Satogahama High School will face-off against another powerhouse, Kogetsu High School.
Led by the number one pitcher named Tsubaki Kousaka, Kogetsu High School is a top contender for the national tournament.
Unfortunately, Tsubaki doesn’t treat Tsubasa and her teammates with respect simply because they’re newcomers to girls’ baseball.
Anyways, the game started with Kogetsu High School taking the lead on the first inning as Tsubaki and her teammates are stronger, although the ace pitcher doesn’t play as she let the third-string players do the thrashing.
However, Satogahama High School bounce back with Aoi Asada’s bunt in which Kogetsu’s defensive play went sloppy and thus Satogahama scored a run to tie it up.
But, it gets worse for Kogetsu as Tsubasa Arihara scored a home run which puts Satogahama in a lead.
Oh and speaking of Kogetsu High School, Tsubaki Kousaka doesn’t like anyone who play sloppily that she would rather kick them out rather than stay in the club. Man, that’s some harsh words from the ace pitcher.
Meanwhile, seems that Akane Ukita felt depressed that she no longer has a place for the baseball club now that stronger players like Kana Tsukumo and Maiko Kurashiki came to the picture.
While Tomoe Kawakita tries to cheer her up, Akane felt demotivated to coach her players, nor play baseball any longer.
However, Tsubasa Arihara told Akane that she still have a role to play and besides, Ukita the one who helped Arihara during the early days of the baseball club so it’s not like she’s not gonna get neglected forever.
Anyways, let’s go back to the game where Satogahama High School are currently on a roll as they score more runs than their opponents.
Oh yeah, and it appears that Satogahama will score more runs as Akane saw the opportunity to let her teammates run towards the homeplate without getting tagged-out.
Thus, she tells Tsubasa Arihara to run towards the homeplate to score the extra run, which she managed to reach it just in time. Way to go, Akane Ukita!
And thanks to Satogahama scoring more runs, this forces Tsubaki Kousaka to step out of the bench and play as the closer pitcher.
Oh yeah, and she’s a good batter too that Kogetsu might have a chance to take back the lead.
Unfortunately for Tsubaki, it’s already too late as Satogahama’s defensive play didn’t give Kogetsu another chance for a comeback.
In any case, Satogahama High School got their first victory over Kogetsu High School with 5-4 as the final score. C’mon, everyone played a part on getting their first win in an exhibition match!
And now, it’s time for Tsubasa Arihara and her teammates to travel to Hyogo Prefecture for the national girls’ baseball tournament.
Sure that they’re nervous at first, but the Satogahama High School’s girls’ baseball club will have some activities before the tournament…
…like having a barbecue because they can’t play baseball on an empty stomach while being nervous. C’mon, they need to chill out before their first game.
Oh yeah, and Seijo High School are here at the tournament as Tomoe Kawakita offered them some food to eat. Even though they’ll be friends today, both schools will become enemies tomorrow.
You see, the first round of the tournament will pit Satogahama against Seijo. Oh yeah, and this is Round 2 between these two school as Satogahama wants to win this game against Seijo.
Of course, Sayaka Jinguji won’t let them win because her team are gonna take the tournament after rebuilding it in the aftermath of a scandal.
But for Satogahama, they have other plans as Aoi Asada bunts Sayaka’s fastball. C’mon, Asada is betting this bunt to shake Seijo to its core.
And as you can see, it finally paid off as Aoi went first base. Now the only thing that’s left is have someone score an RBI on the first inning.
That’s where Ryo Shinonome comes in as she’ll deliver one mean base hit to score a run.
And much like Satogahama’s first game against Seijo, they got pretty lucky as Ryo sends the ball away from Sayaka.
Of course, it’s just a base hit so Shinonome didn’t made a two-run homer, but that’s enough for Asada to run towards the home plate to score one run for Satogahama.
However, they shouldn’t become overconfident because Seijo might bounce back in later innings.
Anyways, here’s Maiko Kurashiki as she’ll be the starting pitcher. And while she can struck-out most batters from Seijo…
…seems that Satogahama’s defense still struggled to stop Seijo from scoring a run. In fact, Yuuki Nozaki fumbled the ball before tagging-out the runner on first base.
But by the time Nozaki tag-out one runner, Seijo already scored one run which tied the game. Yeah, this is gonna be an intense match!
Scratch that, seems that the tables have finally turned in Satogahama’s favor as Yoshimi got a lucky hit and scored a homer.
And so, Satogahama High School takes the lead thanks to Yoshimi Iwaki’s solo home run. For Seijo High School, Sayaka Jinguji and her teammates realized that they’re no longer dealing with a weaker team.
In fact, Sayaka Jinguji called a time-out and told her teammates that it’s her fault for letting the entire team down.
However, Makino told Sayaka Jinguji that she doesn’t need to blame herself nor carry the entire team on her own.
After all, Makino and the rest are here to back Sayaka up and they still have a chance to make a comeback!
Also, Makino told Sayaka to have fun playing baseball in which she got hit hard with her teammate’s words. Well then, let’s hope that Makino’s advice has snapped Sayaka back into action!
Meanwhile for Satogahama High School, seems that some of the players are getting tired like Maiko Kurashiki where her right arm is at her limit. I’m worried that Maiko might get injured if she strained her arm too much.
Of course, Satogahama still has the lead but now the score gap is shrinking thanks to Seijo’s resurgence. C’mon, Sayaka and her teammates won’t give up the fight just yet.
But let’s go back to Satogahama where the situation gets worse when Aoi Asada got a sprained ankle. Seems that she made a horrible landing after catching the ball.
Anyways, Satogahama High School called a time-out where Tsubasa Arihara replaced the injured Aoi Asada with Tomoe Kawakita on second base.
Also, Maiko Kurashiki told her teammates that she’ll be swapping positions with Yuuki Nozaki as she’ll become relief pitcher.
Speaking of Tomoe Kawakita, Tsubasa Arihara told her best friend to show the fruits of her training against Seijo. But you know what, Tomocchi and her teammates have improved significantly.
And now, we’re getting closer to the end of the game as Satogahama High School has a 5-4 lead against Seijo High School. Of course, anything can happen at the 7th (and probably the last) inning.
In any case, here’s Yuuki Nozaki throwing a fastball that’ll stop Seijo’s offense down in its tracks. All she needs is to strike Sayaka Jinguji out in order to win the game.
Not on Sayaka’s watch however as she hit Yuuki’s fastball for a clean base hit.
But then, Tsubasa Arihara catches the ball and throws it towards the home plate. At this point, it’s now or never for Satogahama…
…as Waka Suzuki catches the ball and tag the runner out. This is one intense moment where one team will emerge victorious over the other on the first round of the tournament.
In any case, the game ends with Satogahama High School winning their first match in the tournament against Seijo High School with the score of 5-4.
It was an exciting match between both teams, but Tsubasa Arihara and her teammates managed to secure a monumental win during the national tournament.
However, their cinderella run ends on the second round. I’m not sure who won the tournament, but Satogahama’s girls’ baseball club achieve something that’ll make the entire school proud.
In fact, Satogahama’s performance during the national tournament has attracted various students who wanted to join the club and try to compete again for next year.
For Tsubasa Arihara and the rest, they’ll be busy training these new recruits for next year’s tournament. But if you want to see these characters, you might wanna try playing the mobile game.
And one last thing, here’s Maria Hase as she was recruited by Tsubasa Arihara to join their baseball club. I guess Maria was inspired to take up baseball after watching them play in the tournament.
And that concludes Hachigatsu no Cinderella Nine. Even though the animation is a bit iffy at time, it’s still a decent anime show to watch. Of course, this series is created to promote the mobile game so don’t expect for another season of it. You know what, I’m satisfied that Hachigatsu no Cinderella Nine got a decent ending and there’s no need for it to continue.
The Anime Rambler - By Benigmatica 