I laughing at you all who whine how Sawamura cracks under pressure. Yes he is in pressure by his first ace appearance but on top of that old coach Sakaki is giving a lot of pressure to entire team.
If your problem is that it has happened already a lot , when it is fine to happen again? There is only so many things that can happen to a pitcher during a game to create drama. Would you rather let Sawamura get injured so he can play worse so there wouldnt be repetition in story? Next games will be much easier until they get to fight other established teams (I don't remember now do they have matched between), but this game is a coaches fight. This will be Kataoka vs Sakaki. At least it is clearly for Sakaki hence we get his inner monologue directed at Kataoka constantly.