The Drifter's strikes do hit but if they were blessed with speed, the Batter was gifted with endurance and he keeps pressing forward. Battles in his own world could take hours and the Guardians much longer. Enoch comes to mind. The Puppeteer had been in charge of guiding him through it but without them it was up to him. And he was not inept in combat.

His enemy's advantage was speed and the Batter could be considered the slower one between the two of them. The Drifter has probably picked up that the purifier's' style was to get in and immediately shut down his opponents. He was not using his own Competences because this was a mock battle, but as he explained, Alpha could easily bind and blind someone while the Batter went in for the kill and Omega could stop that happening in reverse.

But the Batter wasn't against changing strategies if needed. He suddenly backs off, not to call the match off but to make the Drifter come to him if they wanted to attack. The Batter will block as best as he can but it seems he's more interested in dodging.

Let's see how well the Drifter deals when someone who is proficient at enduring damage decides to play an endurance game.