For the third straight season the Troy Belles represent will represent the State of Alabama in the 2015 Dixie World Series in West Monroe, La.

In a hot and somewhat rainy afternoon in Enterprise, the Belles knocked off Underwood 13-5 to secure the state championship.

“It’s a great honor these girls have worked really and hard and these parents are very dedicated,” head coach Larry Sanders said. “These girls have a lot of support from the City of Troy and the recreation department. It is an honor to wear the Alabama jersey. We are going to do the best that we can and hopefully catch some lucky breaks.”

In all the wins the Belles have picked up, the common theme from each game was good pitching, solid defense and timely hitting.

After losing their first game of the season on Saturday night, the Belles were able to bounce back and stave off elimination by winning the remaining games leading up to the championship.

“I told the girls after Saturday night that now they can see what kind of team we really have,” Sanders said. “They had to fight to want it, and that’s what they did. The pitching really tightened up and we played good defense. I knew they had it in them they just needed to know it themselves.”

With all three of the Belles pitchers well short of their innings limit for the tournament, coach Sanders had a plethora of options on the mound for Tuesday’s championship game. Molly-Kate Sanders got the call and she didn’t disappoint, Sanders pitched the complete game for the Belles and ran into her only trouble in the first inning.

“She pitched really well, she let up the four runs in the first but she did really well,” Sanders said. “She has pitched really well for us during this tournament. All our pitchers have.”

The Belles started fast in the first inning when they jumped out and scored the games first four runs.

Sydni Garrett reached base to lead off the game due to an error to start the threat for the Belles. With Garrett at third base Underwood threw a wild pitch leading to her to score the games first run.

After a bunt single by Sanders, Sydney Armstrong doubled scoring the second run of the inning. She then scored on a groundout to the shortstop off the bat of Brooke Bennett.

Danielle Brown drove in the final run of the inning on a base hit to right field.

Underwood showed some resiliency and battled back to tie the game in the bottom of the first when they put up four runs on jut two hits.

In the third inning, after both teams went scoreless in the second, Troy once again tacked on runs. After a leadoff single by Garrett and another bunt single by Sanders, Kelsey Gibson drove in Garrett with a base hit. Sanders came around to score on a base hit by Rose Snyder.

Troy scored their seventh run in the fourth when Maggie Phelps drove in Graci Williams.

After the Belles scored one more run in the fifth inning, they separated themselves from Underwood in the sixth inning when they scored four more runs. Garrett, Harrison, and Williams all had RBI’s in the inning.

Brown drove in Snyder for the game’s final run in the seventh inning.

Garrett led the way for the Belles on Tuesday she finished with three hits, while scoring three runs.

The World Series will begin for the Belles on Aug. 1. The Belles finished in third place in both 2013 and 2014.