LUMBERTON — West Robeson majors coach Eric Freeman’s goal for his team in this year’s Dixie Youth World Series was to improve on last year’s third-place finish for the team, with many of the same players on this year’s edition.

That was accomplished with a 4-3 win over Louisiana’s runner-up Wednesday at the Dr. Raymond B. Pennington Athletic Complex. As a reward, they’ll now get the chance for an even bigger accomplishment: winning it all.

West Robeson plays Louisiana in the championship round at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. Louisiana needs to win one game to win the Dixie Youth World Series majors championship, while West Robeson needs to beat Louisiana twice. A second game, if necessary, would be played at 3:30 p.m.

“We’re super proud,” Freeman said. “Once again, Louisiana’s got a team. Every game we’ve had here has been a battle, so we didn’t expect nothing less tonight than to have another battle.”

Wednesday’s win came after a four-run fifth inning by West Robeson, which broke a scoreless tie; the Louisiana runner-up, from Franklin, scored three in the bottom of the sixth before stranding the tying and winning runs on base.

During West Robeson’s fifth-inning rally, it took advantage of a pair of errors before Drew Gause singled to drive in Dakota Locklear; Kade Oxendine scored after a defensive misplay — although Gause was credited with two RBIs — making it 2-0.

“I hit it in the right spot,” Gause said. “It was a little blooper, and they messed it up. That’s it.”

Christian Locklear singled to plate Gause, then Christian Locklear scored on a double steal.

“They’ve been in some situations early in the tournament that they don’t want to get into again,” Freeman said. “They’re starting to take advantage of — I’m seeing them take an extra base, I’m seeing them be more aggressive at the plate. I think they realize now that they’re not going to win by throwing their jersey on the field.”

Seth Brooks pitched five scoreless innings with two hits allowed for West Robeson. Christian Locklear got two outs in the sixth and Dakota Locklear got the final out — though the sixth wasn’t without drama as Louisiana scored three runs in the frame.

“They made some super hits; they still had a lot of fight in them,” Freeman said. “They were still growling and fighting, and that’s always scary. They came out that inning and threw the dice; they didn’t have anything to lose. I respect that. I didn’t want to see it happen, but I like to see that from a team. We were nervous; they had the winning run on first base, not just the tying run.”

West Robeson will now face a familiar opponent in the championship round — Louisiana beat West Robeson 7-4 in West Robeson’s tournament opener on Sunday. Freeman said after that game he expected to see Louisiana again — and now the two teams will meet with the championship at stake.

“We know they’re a good team, they know we’re a good team,” Freeman said. “We both respect each other. We’ve had some conversations throughout the tournament, me and that coach, and we’re happy to play each other again. We’re going to play them just like we played them the first game. The dice was rolled the first game and it rolled their way. We’re going had to head, our best against their best. I think it’s going to be interesting to watch.”