EMERSON, Ga. – The quarterfinals for the 2015 18u WWBA National Championship featured some exciting action, as some of the nation’s top travel baseball teams competed for a chance to move on to the semifinals in one of the most prestigious events of the year. There were a few familiar faces in this round, such as the East Cobb Yankees, Astros and Team Elite Prime, and a lot of people consider these clubs the favorites to take home the championship trophy tomorrow afternoon.

However, there are a few teams that may steal the show when it is all said and done.

It’s a common reoccurrence for the EC Astros and Yankees to be playing late into a tournament, but only one of them would be advancing after today. There was an East Cobb showdown between the two teams in the quarterfinals that featured some power arms.

Team Elite Prime also had a legitimate ace on the mound, Andrew Schultz, who sat in the low-90s and peaked as high as 96 mph with his fastball, striking out eight batters and allowing just one hit in a five-inning complete game performance. Prime took care of the BigStix Gamers pretty easily with a huge nine-run third inning and eventually won 9-0. The Yankees cruised to a 4-0 win behind the a two-hit complete game effort by hard-throwing righty Keyton Gibson, and the stage was now set for semifinal bout between the two teams.

Those games came and went, and the attention shifted to an interesting matchup between Team Louisiana and East Cobb Team Wilson. Both these teams were undefeated throughout this tournament at 8-0, but had flown a little bit under the radar due to the powerhouse programs stealing away all the headlines. They both came into the quarterfinal matchup with a chip on their shoulder, and the game would come down to who wanted it more.

To start the game, the intensity surrounding this matchup was unlike any other, and one could tell that both teams were going to have to give 110 percent effort on this muggy and humid Thursday afternoon. Unfortunately for Team Wilson, what started as a promising game for them after they quickly put one on the board in the second to take the lead, eventually turned into a blowout.

Team Louisiana, hailing from Erath, La., are quite used to these weather conditions, and it did not seem to slow them down one bit. The first three innings were pretty tight between the two, and the score was even at 1-1 before the game got out hand in the fourth inning. That fourth inning would prove to be the difference in the game.

The monster inning began with a bang, as Louisiana-Lafayette commit, Dylon Poncho, belted a towering home run over the left field fence to set the tone. After that, base hits came easy to Team Louisiana and they continued with rip after rip. A two-run base knock by their catcher, Joseph LaGreco, really got the ball rolling in this inning, and by the end of the frame the score would be 8-1.

Aaron George was sharp, going the distance in Team Louisiana's 14-1 win in five innings.