St. James/Smithtown Little League coach Scott Santelli will forever treasure multiyear run with team

The St. James/Smithtown Little League 12U baseball team’s season didn’t end the way the Bulls had hoped, but they have plenty of reasons to be proud.

In the first week of July, St. James/Smithtown came out of the District 35 elimination bracket and overcame a 3-0 deficit to defeat Sayville, 4-3, in the championship game. After steamrolling through the Section 4 East tournament, St. James/Smithtown claimed the joint league’s first state title with an 8-2 win over reigning champion South Shore (Staten Island).

The Bulls opened the Little League World Series Metro Region Tournament in Bristol, Connecticut, with an 18-0 win over Burrillville (Rhode Island) on Aug. 2 and followed it up with a 6-1 win over Fairfield National (Connecticut) on Monday.

But the Bulls were eliminated with their only defeat of the Metro Region Tournament, a 12-1 loss to Fairfield National on Friday night, leaving them one win short of a spot in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

“This was the greatest week of my life. It really was,” manager Scott Santelli said. “To be with these kids for a full week and, looking back, we literally started in early May with all this and it’s been basically the entire summer. I wouldn’t rather it be with anyone else than those 12 kids and my two assistant coaches.”

Along the way, the group of 11- and 12-year-olds became local celebrities and brought the entire St. James/Smithtown community together. After their state championship win, the Bulls were escorted by police cars and fire trucks to Gaynor Park in St. James, where they were greeted by dozens of supporters for a barbecue.

Bull Smith’s Tavern in Smithtown held watch parties for each of the team’s three games in Connecticut, bringing hundreds of people together to cheer the boys on.

“I think this has really galvanized our community,” St. James/Smithtown Little League president Brian Erni said. “Not just our baseball and softball communities that are in our league, but just in general. I have people coming up to me, walking by my house and congratulating me.”

Santelli was emotional when discussing the end of the team’s storybook summer and acknowledging that his time coaching this group is coming to an end.

“Scott is so fiercely committed to this group of kids,” Erni said. “We joke all the time that he can’t talk about this team without crying, but it’s true. He told me earlier in the year, ‘When this is all over, it’s gonna be such a void in my life.’ ”

“My golf game will get better,” Santelli joked. “Seeing them grow up from when they were 7, hearing some of their voices deepen over the last year with puberty, seeing how much stronger, faster, better they got . . . The one thing that never changed is they’ve always been the greatest kids I’ve ever been with.”

The team has helped Santelli through some health issues during the past few years. He called the baseball field his “sanctuary” and said the team kept his mind in a positive place when times were tough.

“They just made my life so much better, and for that, I’ll always be there for them,” Santelli said. “I’ll always love them and I just hope I had a positive impact in their lives.”

Just because the season is over doesn’t mean the kids and coaches will go their separate ways.

“I’m always gonna follow these kids in their high school careers. If they go on to other things, I’ll always be watching them,” Santelli said. “I feel like we’ll still always have our once-a-year barbecue in my backyard, just to be with each other. This is not finished. We’ll always be together.”

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.