The Troy 15U Tournament Team will have a chance to play for a world series title later this week when they travel to Louisiana and begin play on Thursday.

Troy came up just short in their quest of a district championship last month and after weeks of preparation, coach Chris Huner and his players are ready to play.

“We have been practicing three to four times a week,” Huner said. “The team is ready and the guys are eager to play in some more games.”

In their downtime, Troy has been able to schedule games with the Wiregrass Cardinals.

“They have a talented team that is maybe a step above your normal tournament team which is fine,” Huner said. “You want to play good competition. The last time we played them we tied them 3-3. We have gotten better every time we played and we feel positive going into the tournament that we will do well.”

In the state tournament, Troy entered having only practiced for about a week. With more time to prepare, Huner and his coaches are using the time to once again learn about their team, including the four new players that were recently put on the roster.

“We have some talented players that hit the ball well and they can pitch very well,” Huner said. “At the time, we were trying to figure out what the best lineup was. We know more now. We added three 14-year-olds so we did have to start over a little bit, but we are past that and we have a good gameplan ready for this weekend.”

Troy’s pitching staff consists of about seven pitchers, including pitchers suited for various roles including starting and closing.

“We have about seven or eight that pitched this year,” Huner said. “We have kids that can throw strikes. Some are more suited to be starters then they are coming into the middle of an inning, so we know what they are better suited to face. I think we have enough arms to win the tournament. There are pitch counts, so we have tried to work the kids around that magic number.”

Huner believes his offense is capable of doing damage up and down the lineup in different ways.

“We have a couple kids that can hit the long ball. We have some that can hit for average so we have a good combination. We feel confident in our lineup to put the ball in play. Our speed is pretty good so we are prone to steal a base here and there.”

Troy will head to Sterlington Sports Complex where they will play on a field with similar dimensions to the one’s they will see during the high school season.

“It’s a turf infield so it has some similarities with Troy University’s field,” Huner said. “The only difference is the outfield is natural grass, which is a little unusual. Troy and coach Smartt have been gracious in letting us practice over there.”

Troy will travel to Louisiana on Wednesday and play in their first game on Thursday.