Winning a world championship was never in the minds of Warwick North softball players and manager Kevin DeTroia.

Following a 20-3 thumping of Cranston National Budlong in the state championship game, DeTroia noted that his team had achieved its goal – to win a state championship – and everything else is just extra.

Well, fast forward a month later, and Warwick North is in a spot that it had only previously dreamed of.

On Wednesday night, Warwick North was set to play for the World Series Championship against Rowan Little League out of Salisbury, N.C.

Following Warwick North’s East Region-clincher, DeTroia told fans he would take his team as far as he could take them.

He has certainly made good on those words.

“After [Tuesday night’s] win, my assistant coach, Carlos Rodas, and I looked at each other and said ‘I can’t believe this is happening,’” DeTroia said. “We looked at each other and laughed and joked. We think we have a strong team. We came out here and lost our first game to Uganda, so we told the girls after that they had to fight to make it to the semifinals. That’s what they’ve done. They’ve battled.”

A team doesn’t make it that far without good coaching.

That was evident in the sixth inning on Tuesday night when Central Iowa was threatening to make a comeback.

Pitcher Emily Carter had given up two runs and fell behind in the count, 3-1, to the next hitter.

In the middle of the at-bat, DeTroia went out to calm down his hurler. His words of wisdom resonated with Carter, who came back to strike out that hitter, as well as the next hitter, to allow Warwick North to hang on for the one-run win, 5-4.

“I just felt that she was overthrowing her pitches,” DeTroia said. “I just told her to calm down, relax and play catch with our catcher [Dyonna Rodas]. I told her she’s got this, no problem.”

After securing the victory, DeTroia’s squad was one win away from becoming the world champion.

Prior to Wednesday’s title game, DeTroia talked about how surreal the feeling is.

“We’ve always said it and talked about it, but it actually happens now,” DeTroia said of making it to the World Series championship game. “When we made it here, our goal was to make it to the semifinals. For the girls, they just wanted to get on ESPN. We told the girls don’t get caught up in all the media hype out here and just play your game. If you do that, you’ll be in the spotlight, and it’s actually happening for them.”

And with the talent and the coaching that Warwick North has, it has the right to be confident entering Wednesday night’s game.

“I think if we play the way that we played over the last three games, we’ll be great,” DeTroia said.

The results from Wednesday’s game were unavailable at press time, but if Warwick North were to win, it would be the first team from Warwick and just the second team from Rhode Island to win the Little League Softball World Series.