St. James/Smithtown does the Bristol stomp with 18-0 win over Rhode Island in Little League World Series Metro Region Tournament

BRISTOL, Conn. — If the bright lights and ESPN camera bothered the St. James/Smithtown 12-and-under baseball team, it was impossible to tell.

The team’s debut in the Little League World Series Metro Region Tournament couldn’t have gone much better.

Jeremy Katz had three RBIs and struck out nine in 4 1/3 innings and Lucas Kostas went 3-for-4 with four RBIs to lead St. James/Smithtown to an 18-0 win over Burrillville (Rhode Island) on Saturday night at Breen Field.

St. James/Smithtown is two wins away from reaching the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

“We’ve just been trying to keep them busy, keep their mind off things,” manager Scott Santelli said before the game. “We actually did a team meditation today for about 10 minutes. That’s what Jeremy and Kevin [Moran] do, so we figured let’s have the whole team do that. It just calmed them down a little bit. I think they’re ready to go.”

St. James/Smithtown will face Fairfield National (Connecticut) in a winners’ bracket game at 1 p.m. on Monday. If St. James/Smithtown wins on Monday, it will play in the regional championship game on Friday.

With all the extra pressure that comes with playing in a regional tournament on ESPN+, St. James/Smithtown handled adversity well in the first inning. The second batter Katz faced reached on an error and the next batter singled to put runners on first and second with one out. Katz took matters into his own hands, striking out the next two batters to end the inning, and was fired up as he came off the mound.

“That inning could’ve been one of those innings where there’s a domino effect and one bad play turns into another bad play,” Katz said. “Getting those two strikeouts was huge and we got a confidence boost and everybody was fired up.”

Katz’s energy carried into the top of the second. Dominic Ciminiello worked a one-out walk and scored on Kostas’ long two-out double to right for a 1-0 lead.

“Getting out of that inning was really huge and I think we were really fired up,” Kostas said. “That carried on through my at-bat and I got a double.”

In the third, JT Borowski singled with one out before his teammates put together a two-out rally. Katz was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to drive in Borowski. Ryan Delgado followed with a single to right-centerfield to drive in Chase Saxon and Moran to make it 4-0.

Rhode Island starting pitcher Jace Detonnancourt looked strong early on and his velocity was giving some hitters trouble. He left the mound with 51 pitches in the third inning, shaking his arm in discomfort.

“The big thing with this tournament is pitch counts, not even scoring,” Santelli said. “He had 27 pitches in the first inning, so that was a good start for us against a really good pitcher. He got injured later on, which is unfortunate . . . Once we get into a rhythm with our offense, it’s hard to stop us.”

Kostas drove in Eric Hanson with a single in the fourth to make it 5-0. In the fifth, Moran and Katz each had an RBI single to extend the lead to 7-0.

St. James/Smithtown scored 11 runs in the sixth as Hunter Falcone, Saxon, Katz, Delgado, Andrew Barbato, Ciminiello and James Santelli each drove in a run and Moran and Kostas each had two RBIs.

“I truly believe in my heart that this team is going to Williamsport,” SJSLL president Brian Erni said. “They are incredibly special. They’re deep. They’re talented. I think we are set up really, really well to win this thing. If they make history and they’re the first team to go to Williamsport from St. James/Smithtown, it would be the perfect ending to their Little League careers because there is no one that deserves it more than these guys.”

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.