EMERSON, Ga. — With the 2017 18u WWBA National Championship beginning on Saturday, the reigning champions, the East Cobb Astros, are back at LakePoint to go for another title. The Astros drew a step closer after winning its opening game, 19-0, scoring seven in the first and 12 in the second to run rule the West Georgia Jackets in three.

Astros’ starter Colin Casey went three innings of hitless baseball to seal the first win of the tournament. Casey had no lack of support, as the lineup accumulated 14 hits in two innings, showing that although this is a team of multiple fresh faces from last summer’s title, the talent is still there.

“They are good leaders,” head coach Jamie Crane said about the five returning Astros’ champions. “I think because of the success last year in this event, it will contribute to the success of the team as a whole. We got four or five guys back from last year that are playing a lot, and are in different roles from last summer, so it’s a little different from being the young guy on the team, but at the same time, they fed off the seniors from last year and I think it transitions well to this year.”

One of those seniors is catcher Sam Praytor, who will head up to Alabama in the fall to start his collegiate career for the Tide. The Helena, Alabama native is ranked as the top catcher in Alabama and the ninth-best overall player within the state. He is the 14th-best catcher nationally, and is Perfect Game’s 166 prospect overall coming out of the 2017 class. He also was named the MVP at last year's 18u WWBA National Championship.

Praytor will eventually be joined by fellow teammate and outfielder Kevin Dowdell who is a 2018 Alabama commit. These are just two of the Astros’ 15 players who represent commitments to Vanderbilt, Clemson, Tennessee, Auburn, Troy, Navy, Stephen F. Austin and Jacksonville State.

“Jamie and all the other coaches have been good mentors and pushed me to work hard and be the best player I can be and the best person I can be,” Praytor said. “I started playing when I was 15 with Jamie and that just helped me a ton.”

Strong player development has become a hallmark for this program, and is what sets the East Cobb Baseball organization apart from the rest.

“We have a consistency of players. Guys, when they play at East Cobb, they normally stay at East Cobb, they don’t leave,” Crane said. “We’ve been blessed from that standpoint. But I think the strength of our program is the continuity of kids because they’ve played together for a few years.”

Mackenzie Hicks, Troy commit and closer of the last summer’s championship game, hasn’t been with the program as long as some, but was coached by Crane when he was younger.

“Last summer was my first summer playing out here,” Hicks said. “I’ve played against them in the past out of Troy, that’s how they picked me up. There’s so much exposure out here. This complex brings the best teams in the country every summer. [East Cobb and Perfect Game] have helped me a lot, it’s something else. Where I’m from, we don’t do Perfect Game. This has helped me so much and has given me a four-year education.”

The East Cobb Astros are just one of 71 teams within East Cobb Baseball. The organization is comprised of 11 age groups, ranging from 8u to 18u, all offering competitive travel play both at the East Cobb complex and around the Southeast.

With the Atlanta/East Cobb area already known as a hot bead for high-caliber baseball and development, the East Cobb teams do not have to travel far to find comparable competition.

“The ease of being able to play within 30 miles of our own complex [is what’s nice about Perfect Game,]” Crane said. “It’s a lot easier and doesn’t require much travel. The ease of practice and travel to and from LakePoint, I think, contributes to maintaining a team atmosphere.”

This tournament in specific will have a different atmosphere than most, as it is predominantly comprised of rising seniors and soon-to-be collegiate players.

“The toughest thing about this event is the draft just before it,” Crane said. “There’s a lot of emotions around it for those seniors that maybe expected to get drafted and didn’t, and even those who got drafted are waiting to see if the finances are right to take the course to Major League Baseball.”

For those uncommitted, it is a chance for visibility.

“For me, I’m one of the older kids on the team and have already signed a college scholarship,” Hicks said. “But these younger kids have come to show their talent and ability to coaches.”

Something Hicks was able to do last year, as he closed out the championship game and sealed the East Cobb Astros name as the best 17/18u team in the country.

“It was unbelievable, it was nothing like I’ve ever felt before,” Hicks said. “Just to know that after that last pitch, you’re the No. 1 team. We got to keep the tradition going, with East Cobb coming out on top.”

The Astros continued that push to be back-to-back WWBA National Champions with a quick turnaround—playing a second game Saturday evening against eXposure 18u Louisville Slugger under the lights at LakePoint. That game also was never really in question, a 16-1 win that lasted four innings. While they've made it look easy to first two games the Astros have enough experienced players on their roster to know they won't all be this easy.

“It’s the longest tournament we play all summer, it’s just a grind and you have to stay in it every single day and just know that every game means something,” Praytor said, who looked to pick up from where he left off a year ago by going 4-for-4 with five runs scored and four driven in over his team's first two games. “You can’t just take off a game even if you’ve gotten into bracket play because it’ll ruin your seeding.”