It was serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday from July 1992 to November 1999, with its chapters collected in thirty-four tankōbon volumes.

During middle school, Hiro Kunimi (pitcher), Hideo Tachibana (third baseman and 4th batter), and Atsushi Noda (catcher) were friends and teammates on the same baseball team.

In the seventh grade Hiro also played matchmaker to Hideo and Hikari Amamiya, a neighborhood childhood friend who grew up with him as close as a sibling.

At this time Hiro, victim of a delayed growth spurt, was a very short, comparatively immature boy, uninterested in girls, and initially happy that he could get the two of them together.

As the manga begins Hiro is dealing with a doctor's diagnosis that tells him that, if he continues pitching, his elbow would shatter within three months.

Disgusted by the demeaning behavior of his team captain and the pompous 1st year star player, Ryūtaro Kine, (once an accomplished Little League pitcher), Hiro decides to switch sides and pitch "one last game" for the fan club.

Senkawa were set to meet up with Meiwa Daiichi after two opponents in the Koshien tournament, a duel between the friends and rivals: Hiro and Hideo.

This is foiled when Senkawa loses in the ninth inning of the second round when Hiro sprains his foot while dodging the opposing pitcher's hand, which was tagging first base directly under his spiked cleats.

Right before their last summer tournament starts Hideo tells Hikari that she must choose between him and Hiro once they face each other in what he believes is their fated showdown at Koshien.

The next morning, Hiro implies to Haruka that he intends to play baseball as a professional by tossing a paper airplane that he says is "traveling to the major leagues" and Haruka declares her decision to accompany him by saying "then I will be the stewardess," referencing an earlier conversation where she said she wanted to become a stewardess, which she sees as a fitting job for the wife of a baseball player.

Having resolved the real conflicts of the story, the manga ends with Senkawa traveling in their bus to play the final game of the Koshien, never revealing if they win or not.