Larry Sanders has waited two weeks to eat his gumbo, and the time has finally come.

The Alabama Belles will make the 328-mile trek to Ponchatoula, La. For the Dixie Belles World Series, marking the second year in a row a Troy team has advanced that far.

The 2013 Troy Ponytails were left thinking what might have been after falling in a close game of last year’s World Series.

“We have never won a World Series in softball, and these girls want to be the first,” Sanders said. “Our pitching has been solid all summer, and our bats have been coming back around in practice. We just have to limit our errors, and we will have a chance.”

One major difference from normal will be the playing surface. At the World Series, a handful of games will be played on a baseball field with a grassed infield.

To get his players ready for the change, Sanders moved practices to Sauers Field on South Franklin Drive.

“One field is going be grass, and the other is dirt,” Sanders said. “I have never seen that before, but the practices over at Sauers have been good and I don’t think we will have any trouble with the grass.”

Troy made a clean sweep of the Sub-District and District Tournaments, before losing one game at State. Sanders thinks the team is better after having suffered the loss.

“They now know they can be beat,” Sanders said. “I think it helps them, and the know they have to play really solid softball to win it.”

The Belles open the 2014 Dixie Belles World Series against Virginia Saturday at 5 P.m.