I dont know why but i think the author is:
1st one:
- Gonna make Seido win this Summer and Lose again in the Nationals and make the 3rd years retire (which is gonna be really sad) or either way make Seido lose again this summer and make their fall season horrible which will setup another character development from Sawamura and the third years are gonna help them. Probably they gonna make him the Captain and Ace or the team before he leaves seido since he was also the captain of his baseball team before joining Seido or make his situation similar to Narumiya Mei where he isnt the captain but needs to act as the leader.
Or
2nd:
-Make them win summer and eventually make the nationals as the final arc (which will possibly be a long one considering all strongest teams are in summer)
But i dont know tbh since the 2nd years (Sawamura, Furuya, Kominato etc) still has 1 yr left. I refuse to think that the author is trying to make the first one happen but i cant help it. Considering some of my favorite characters (Kuramochi, Shirasu, Nabe and his two friends, ofcourse Miyuki which i think is automatically given) will retire is gonna make this series sad again. I still remember when the last years 3rd years retire i cant help but feel really sad for them.