<h3 style="background-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; font-size: 17px; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal;">Gorō moves back to Mifune when his stepfather is traded back to the Blue Oceans and finds his little league friends grown up and attending Mifune East Junior High School. He surprises his friends when he tells them that he has been playing soccer and doesn't plan on playing for the junior high baseball team, revealing that he had destroyed his right shoulder out in Fukuoka. Gorō in the end reveals to his friends he had switched to being a southpaw pitcher. This influenced Yamane, who was third baseman before he destroyed his elbow, to also switch arms. At first, Gorō was not interested in playing baseball because he wanted to play with a hardball not rubber. During a match where Mifune East Junior High faced Mifune West Junior High, Gorō took to the mound once again seeing how insulting Mifune West was being to his friends. In the end, they created a comeback win. Together, Gorō and his friend Komori Daisuke rebuilt the junior high baseball team. The team becomes strong enough to enter the regional junior high tournament and once again he found himself playing against his friend and rival Toshiya Sato, who plays on the Tomonoura Junior High School team. Mifune eventually beats Tomonoura in a tight game and Gorō and Toshiya vow to play on the same high school team together to defeat Kaido. However, when Mifune East played Kaido Affiliate, they lost 19-0 in the 4th inning and the game was defaulted. A reason why their friendship went a bit downhill in the middle of the series was because Gorō decided that he would go to Kaido but Toshiya didn't want to go to Kaido at all. However Toshiya was soon convinced by his grandfather to go to Kaido. It was also Toshiya who told Gorō his pitching had a fatal flaw and made Gorō understand he could pitch even better.</span></h3>
