Episode 12

Time for a Ball Game is the twelfth episode of the Assassination Classroom anime series. The episode first aired on April 10, 2015.

Overview
It's time for the ball game tournament at Kunugigaoka and the guys in Class E are training extra hard to beat the baseball club. They put up a good fight, but when Class E gets ahead, the chairman steps in.

Summary
While walking with Nagisa and Karma after the end of school, Sugino passes by the members of the school's baseball club during their practice, led by Shindo. The two get along well since Sugino was part of the team before being kicked out since dropping to E Class, though Shindo's belief that only the chosen will thrive ahead catches Karma's attention.

When the announcement of a ball game tournament comes in, the boys of Class E is put into an exhibition match with the baseball club. Sugino expresses his desire to win despite the odds being heavily against them. Impressed at how articulate the class has been lately, Korosensei pitches in as their coach to train them extra hard. Seeing that Shindo is the star player largely due to his fastballs, Korosensei plans Class E to bunt the ball. At the game, the first innings goes well, Class E's bunting strategy catches Shindo, the rest of the players and their coach off guard and easily score three runs.

Before the club's turn to bat, Chairman Asano steps in, replacing the stunned coach with himself. Although Sugino prevents the club from scoring any runs to complete the first innings, the chairman's words about needing to trample others to get ahead completely turns the club players around from their stunned selves. All the club players are now defending inside the field, marking the downfall of Class E's bunting strategy. While technically legal, it would be considered unfair though the umpire (being one of the main campus teachers) is on the club's side. With Korosensei unable to come up with a counter strategy, Shindo gets all three batters out in succession. Sugino manages to prevent the club from scoring any runs.

Karma is the first to bat in the second innings. At Korosensei's advice beforehand, he complains about the club's defensive positions cluttering up the field to the chairman, the umpire's silence in the matter and provokes the audience as being morons in not understanding such matters. Karma believes that the plan did not work though Korosensei says otherwise. The second innings continues with three successive strikes and the club scoring two runs. Karasuma watches on seeing the battle playing out between the chairman and Korosensei, noting how alike they are yet so different in their methods as teachers.

The final innings start with Class E unable to score additional runs. When it is the club's turn to bat, the chairman asks Hashimoto to "show E Class how it's done". Hashimoto plays the opponent's bunting strategy, completely catching Sugino, Nagisa and Korosensei off guard. Chairman Asano reasons that although the audience would find it unacceptable, since E Class used it first the club is justified in copying them. Soon all the bases are loaded and Shindo (invigorated to stomp on Sugino thanks to the chairman's words since the first innings) is the last to bat. As Class E tries to come up with a counter strategy, Korosensei calls Karma to put the earlier provocation to use. Karma sees what their teacher is getting across and relays this to the class.

When play resumes, everyone is stunned to see Karma and Isogai taking up positions very close to Sugino. Karma states that although this is interfering with the batter's concentration and swing, when the club employed the same strategy earlier the umpire did not issue any warnings so Class E would be justified in doing the same. The chairman allows this but believes that E class will still lose. With his answer, Karma and Isogai take positions at point blank range to Shindo. Karma's trash talking and Shindo's unwillingness to injure them in the swing leads Shindo to miss Sugino's pitches and cause the club to lose, thus E Class wins the game. The audience leaves in disgust that a professional team could lose to a bunch of nobodies though Nagisa notes that they did not realise the behind the scenes battle between the two coaches. Korosensei claims this victory against the chairman and leaves it to the final exams as the decisive round while Sugino reconciles his friendship with Shindo.

Episode Notes

 * This episode marks the debut of the second opening, Jiriki Hongan Revolution and the transition between the first and second half of the first season.

Differences between the Manga

 * Because his initial introduction from the manga was omitted in the anime, Seo is not present in this episode when Class A's victory against Class D is celebrated.