To be honest, I feel as though the rivalry between Furuya and Sawamura is irritating. Furuya is a power pitcher his arsenal includes a heavy fastball that rises, splitter and forkball. He tries and often imitates what Eijun can do. Case in point, he's said on different occasions that he never thought he was better than Sawamura, but then in some of his reflections he thinks about Sawamura catching up and being "right behind me now" or when Sawamura pitched well in the second act practice matches during the spring "no you can compete with me". Honestly he has been feeling superior over Sawamura since day one and is jealous of his stamina, talent (because eijun has an open ended amount of potential and is a novice prodigy in his own right as seen with his control and ability to paint the corners, have multiple breaking balls, constant improvement, optimism, fielding, bunt master etc.). Coach O is right when he says Sawamura is on the team to fuel Furuya, however, Furuya is arrogant and selfish, plays baseball for himself and honestly, Kataoka goes easy on him Compared to how he treated and with the team continues to treat Sawamura. Letting Furuya continue to pitch bad games, but pulling Sawamura out immediately if something goes wrong and not giving him other chances for a while afterwards. Supressing Sawamura while encouraging Furuya. Look at the breaking ball arc, Furuya was being arrogant in having the Ace # despite not recognizing or trusting his team, having bad games where Eijun and Nori have to relieve him, yet he still gets the credit. Take a look at the times Eijun has asked to continue pitching, but then Kataoka gives the last inning to Furuya for his glory and building of his pride while Sawamuras confidence and trust takes a hit. Its so frustrating that he is always suppressed and told to walk on solid ground now where as we turn around and the Furuya is encouraged to rise up despite being negligent of his body, his health and training. The ankle, his back, and even telling reporters "I lost the game" after Sawamura was the saving grace of the team for stopping Ichidai 3rds momentum , but the rest of the team failed to score. And its bs that instead of truly being the ace when he does finally get the number, he still has Furuya attached to him and still isnt truly acknowledged. I truly hope that salmuera develops even more throughout the series that were able to see a good third year for them, see where the senpais are in life, bring back a little bit more I've tetsu and Chris and Masuko, Miyauchi, Sakai ,Ryouke, Jun and Tanba and when Sawamuras year becomes 3rd years how they develop and move forward. Since the anime have caught up to the manga, which is really frustrating because the manga has been running for so long an anime season start every 2 years, I honestly think this will be some great content for Filler episodes to keep the momentum and the fan base going for the show. I'd like to see sawamura get more breaking balls, pitch faster, become an inside pitch batting specialist to add to his list of achievements as a baseball player and become more well-rounded. It wouldn't hurt to see a little bit more of his old team, maybe plots where we're following their team and wakana. There's definitely a smidgen of a love Ark in there, so that needs to be brought out. It wouldn't hurt to see OVA episodes about other characters and about sawamura going home to visit and more of a backstory for furuya
