Furuya wants to be the ace and concentrate on pitching not less than Sawamura. so his rivalry with Sawamura will go on till the end. And rather than batting I’d like for him to improve his stamina so that he can play the whole game without Kataoka complaining
His motivations differ from Sawamura’s, though. Sawamura came to Seidou to become the ace, with Miyuki as his catcher. Furuya came to Seidou simply because he wanted to pitch and somebody good enough to catch for him, seizing the ace title wasn’t his goal. Actually, even Miyuki wasn’t quite his goal, he would’ve settled for anyone who could catch his pitch, not really caring who it was, it just happened that Miyuki had enough publicity to catch his eye. Now, compare to Sawamura. The differences are obvious.
I expect the rivalry to continue but subdue somewhat. It’s now possible to make an educated guess on what role Terajima-sensei sees fitting for Furuya in pitching - a closer. There’re already 2 pieces of evidence: Terajima-sensei’s dream team and the little strip extra he drew where, in Sawamura’s dream, he’s the ace and Furuya is the closer. This is what it’s going to end up being, I guess. That’s why I think gusty’s scenario has a good chance of happening (although, there’s also the matter of Kanemaru who’s described as the leader of first years and, thus, also a candidate for captaincy in the future). Sawamura is the main character, he’s going to be the ace, there’s no way around it, and I’m afraid anyone who thinks otherwise on this account is in for a bitter disappointment come the end.