How do I set the default soundcard for the root user?

I am ruing raspbian Jessie on my raspi 2. I have an exteal usb soundcard for my pi. I set it as the default card simply by going to Menu->preferences->Audio Device Settings. This works as expected.

I am writing some code that takes in a file and plays it among other things. The problem is that it must be run with sudo, which then ignores my soundcard and uses the inteal card. Is there a way to apply the default soundcard setting to root? I have tried adding root to the audio group, but that didn't help.

Thanks!