As far as these tpb/manga reviews go, I hit them in the order I bought them, which is why we're skipping volume 2 of Cross Game and going to volume 3. The first half is largely focused on a rematch between Seishu Gakuen's front-line team, and the "portables", led by Ko and Akaishi, with their respective coaches' jobs on the line.
Adachi advances a few different threads here. One is the continued progress of Ko as a pitcher, as he utterly dominates Coach Daimon's lineup. Adachi uses a couple of different characters as the POV here.
One is Aoba Tsukishima, who is added to the portable team as their starting centerfielder (even though she can't play in any official games because she's a girl.) Aoba still doesn't believe in Ko, but she also hasn't seen him pitch in a game other than the first one between these two teams. We see that in how immediately irritated she gets with him. When he walks one batter in the late innings, Adachi draws her glaring and muttering "Hey!" in the next panel. This is a chance for Ko to prove to his biggest doubter that he's actually taking this seriously and not just a goof-off.
The other is Yuhei Azuma, the star slugger, who Adachi begins to soften, or maybe flesh out is a better descriptor. We get to meet his older brother Junpei (who's a pervert, but otherwise an upbeat guy and supportive brother). Yuhei's recognized something in Ko already, demonstrated in volume 1 by the fact Yuhei bothers to remember his name, a courtesy he didn't extend to most of his teammates. He's the only one who doesn't dismiss the portables chances of winning the game. Though that may have as much to do with how aware he's become of Coach Daimon's limitations. The portables probably win because Yuhei lightly injures himself so he can't play, telling Daimon to prove this team is good enough to win without him.
He's still kind of a prick, or just has a very deadpan delivery on his jokes, but Adachi is working hard to show that Yuhei isn't simply condescending to the others. Rather, he holds them to the same standard holds himself. Because he believes it's the only way he'll achieve his goals.
Adachi really likes using the head-on perspective during the game
action. The baseball coming directly towards us, slightly squashed
looking. Or using seeing the catcher from the perspective or whoever is
throwing, with the ball already in their mitt. Or showing Ko at the end
of his delivery. It's probably the best approach, breaking up the action
into small panels. A baseball field is so large, it would be hard to
show all the action in one panel and convey any sense of action or
tension. Better to save that for establishing shots, and zoom in on
specific moments.
After that game, Adachi jumps ahead a little as a way to shake things up again. Yuhei's brother is trying to court Aoba's oldest sister, and Yuhei is no living at Ko's house, because all the players Daimon recruited left with him, so there's no one in the dorms. Which makes Yuhei sort of the outsider perspective on everything with Ko and Aoba. We see that there are tons of boys smitten with Aoba, none of whom she's interested in, and Akaishi is actively keeping all the girls away from Ko by saying he's Aoba's property. Aoba is unaware of this, which is probably good for Akaishi's health. Or maybe Ko's since she'd probably blame him somehow.
Aoba and Ko are still pretty antagonistic to each other, so I'm not really buying there's going to be some big romance between them eventually, but I know that's where it's going nonetheless, even with the late introduction of Aoba's cousin, Mizuki.
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