The next morning, the team is getting ready for the fall tournament. The new coach, Miyuki kataoka, has agreed to stay with the team through the tournament to help the team adjust to his style of play. The other players don't know about the new coach's agreement to stay on until the tournament is over, so they're not aware of it. Miyuki asks about his father, who's in the physical therapy department. He's been feeling a little sick lately, and he's worried about how he'll be able to keep up with the rest of the team when they get back from the tournament. He tells Miyuki to be patient, because he doesn't want to switch out any of the pitchers in the tournament, even though they've already given up hope of making it to the tournament because of their lack of strength. He asks Miyuki how many more rounds of drills they'll have to do before Miyuki can go home, and Miyuki tells him that he can't see straight. He wonders if Miyuki has abandoned hope in the team's prospects for the tournament , because the legs of a pitcher aren't strong enough to go back and finish the day's work. He wishes Miyuki could figure out a way to cut corners faster, so that Miyuki wouldn't be so stressed out by Miyuki's demands. He says he'd like to know a shortcut to that, so Miyuki suggests that they just keep running, even if it's just for the sake of running.