St. James/Smithtown Little League confident heading into winner's bracket game

With the St. James/Smithtown 12U baseball team reaching the Little League World Series Metro Region Tournament for the first time, there were questions about how the players would handle the pressure of playing on such a big stage.

The young stars shined the brightest in an 18-0 victory over Burrillville, Rhode Island, in their opening game of the tournament on Saturday night at Breen Field in Bristol, Connecticut.

Though some players and coaches thought the team would receive jerseys representing New York for the tournament, all four teams are playing in the same uniforms they’ve been wearing all summer. Rocking their bright red “Smithtown” jerseys and hats embroidered with the Bulls logo, the players represented their town well on the ESPN+ broadcast.

“I think it’s extra cool to be on ESPN and represent St. James/Smithtown,” manager Scott Santelli said. “The town has done so much for this team. The league has done so much, so to represent our town on TV, it’s awesome.”

St. James/Smithtown will take on Fairfield National (Connecticut) in a winner’s bracket game on Monday at 1 p.m. on ESPN. The winner advances to the tournament’s championship game on Friday. The loser will play in Wednesday’s elimination bracket final.

With Saturday’s blowout win, the Bulls are set up extraordinarily well for the remainder of the tournament. Starting pitcher Jeremy Katz threw 67 pitches, but because he started the final batter he faced with 62 pitches, Katz adheres to the 65-pitch threshold, which requires three days of rest.

If St. James/Smithtown were to lose on Monday, Katz would be available for Wednesday’s elimination game. The ace struck out nine and allowed two hits and a walk in 4 1⁄3 innings on Saturday.

Kevin Moran replaced Katz in the fifth and allowed a hit to the first batter but struck out the next two hitters to preserve the shutout. Moran threw only 10 pitches, meaning he is available for Monday’s game. He likely will serve as the starting pitcher.

“I felt good on the mound. My fastball was working, I only threw one off-speed pitch, but it was a good one,” Moran said. “It’s a good confidence-booster to be able to get out of an inning and I’m excited to pitch on Monday.”

Lucas Kostas struck out the side in the bottom of the sixth to close it out.

“A game like this, when you score a bunch of runs, it makes the pitch-count decisions a little bit easier,” Santelli said. “You can get some guys working, like Lucas, who is gonna be one of our guys. It gives Kevin a little action going into Monday to get the nerves out a little bit.”

Scoring 18 runs also gives the offense confidence going forward. Moran went 3-for-3 with three RBIs, Kostas went 3-for-4 with four RBIs and Katz went 2-for-3 with three RBIs. The Bulls scored 11 runs in the top of the sixth.

“It’s a big confidence-booster to get us pumped up for the next game,” Moran said. “We’re very excited for the next game and I think we’re gonna do very well.”

St. James/Smithtown will face a Fairfield team that won a 2-1 thriller over Jackson Holbrook (New Jersey) in seven innings on Saturday. SJ Taxiltaridis’ two-out triple drove in the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh. With the score tied at 1 in the bottom of the sixth, Taxiltaridis worked his way out of a bases-loaded, none-out jam to extend the game.

“When you get to this point, every team is going to be good,” Santelli said. “Every team is going to have two big pitchers. We were looking at all the teams and every team has four big guys, six average-sized kids and two smaller kids.”

The bleachers behind Fairfield’s dugout were packed to the brim as spectators had cars parked up and down Mix Street to watch the hometown team play.

“They’re gonna have the fans and they’ve got some big kids too,” Santelli said. “That was a heck of a game they played. They did a great job of getting out of that inning with bases loaded, no outs. They’re gonna be pumped up. They probably are the favorites in this tournament, but I like being the underdog.”

By Matt Lindsay

matt.lindsay@newsday.com@mattlinds19

Matt Lindsay is a high school sports reporter who joined Newsday in 2022 after graduating from Stony Brook University.