St. James/Smithtown's dream run ends short of Little League World Series
St. James/Smithtown players after falling to Fairfield National in the LLWS Metro Regional championship game on Friday in Bristol, Conn. Credit: Douglas Healey
BRISTOL, Conn. — On a perfect night for baseball, the St. James/Smithtown 12U team’s perfect summer came to an end.
Fairfield National (Connecticut) defeated the Bulls, 12-1, in four innings at Breen Field in the Little League World Series Metro Region championship game.
“You don’t want to lose like this, but it’s just been such a great run,” manager Scott Santelli said after his team fell a win short of a spot in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. “You look up in the crowd, I think we had as many people as the other side there and they’re the hometown team. Our fans came out and supported us. I wish we gave them a better fight tonight, but these kids battled.”
Fairfield National will face Lamar (Texas), representing the Southwest Region, in the opening round of the Little League World Series at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at Lamade Stadium in Williamsport.
Fairfield National had about as good a start as a team could ask for. Jimmy Taxiltaridis drove in his brother, SJ Taxiltaridis, with a single to left for the first run of the game. Dante Madera followed with a two-run triple to the rightfield fence to give Fairfield a 3-0 lead in the top of the first.
St. James/Smithtown ace Jeremy Katz left the mound in the first inning after throwing 33 pitches. Kevin Moran entered with the bases loaded and one out, induced an infield fly and picked up a strikeout to escape the jam.
“I’ve had [Katz] for four years now. He’s been my big guy for two or three years,” Santelli said. “Every big game, he battles. They were just hitting today. When they get a rhythm, like we had the first couple of games, it’s hard to stop the bleeding. When you mix in a couple of errors, which we normally don’t have, and walks, next thing you know, you’re down four or five runs, and in these kinds of games, it’s tough to come back.”
Chase Saxon worked a walk to start the bottom of the first, but once Fairfield’s Luca Pellegrini started pounding the strike zone, the ace was nearly untouchable. Pellegrini struck out the next seven batters he faced. He struck out nine batters and allowed one run, one hit and two walks in four innings.
“Sometimes I think when you see it on TV, it doesn’t look as fast as it is in real life,” Santelli said. “He was pumping it. He was good.”
JT Borowski picked up the Bulls’ first hit with two outs in the third and St. James/Smithtown loaded the bases as Gary Rocco and Hunter Falcone each was hit by a pitch. Saxon worked another walk to put the Bulls on the board and cut their deficit to 5-1. Moran fouled off three pitches with two strikes and hit a dribbler just beyond the mound, but SJ Taxiltaridis charged in from shortstop and made a strong throw to first for the final out of the inning, ending the Bulls’ threat.
Fairfield National piled on seven runs in the fourth. When the teams met on Monday, St. James/Smithtown took a 6-1 win. Fairfield National defeated Jackson Holbrook (New Jersey), 3-0, in seven innings on Wednesday to advance to the championship game.
“They’re obviously an exceptional baseball team,” Fairfield National manager Brian Palazzolo said. “Coming out of the state of New York is really difficult to do with Massapequa, South Shore [Staten Island], White Plains was really good this year. To come out of that state, they got here for a reason. They showed it [on Monday].”
St. James/Smithtown Little League president Brian Erni is proud of the way the team conducted itself and represented its town on national television.
“For a group of 12-year-olds and some 11-year-olds to be so poised and in control of their emotions at such a high level and under such scrutiny has been really amazing to watch,” Erni said. “It’s a testament to their families for raising them so well and keeping them so grounded and humble.”
Matt Lindsay is a high school sports reporter who joined Newsday in 2022 after graduating from Stony Brook University.
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