FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The Fairhope Dixie Boys 14 All Stars got a warm send off Wednesday at Volanta Park as they wrapped up one of their final practices before heading to the World Series tournament in Seneca, South Carolina.

The team of Brett Bishop, Tevin Brown, Chancellor Childress, Peyton Galich, Kody Gratkowski, David Hall, Brandon Jones, Camden Layton, Mason Lockhart, Philip Martin, Brett Mosley and Caleb Rogers along with coaches Kevin Galich, Mark Gratkowski and Mike Jones won the Alabama state championship last week in Enterprise with a six-game sweep including a 9-7 championship victory over the host team for the state crown.

Now they face the Florida state champions in the first round, but just getting to the World Series was not the main goal, said coach Mike Jones.

“I am very proud of our boys,” he said. “But now we are focusing on pushing them to not be satisfied with making it to the World Series. Now we are emphasizing that they are good enough to do very, very well up there. And if they perform as well as we believe they can, they can win it all. So we’re excited for sure. We have a lot of speed, we hit the ball well, play good solid defense and have a tremendously deep pitching staff. If we just stay focused we should be okay.”

The Alabama state champs open the first round of the World Series tournament against Florida Saturday at 1 p.m. The team is accepting donations to help with their travel and other expenses. To help go to: gofundme.com/3qc7qk