Ace vs. ace as on Friday night as St. James/Smithtown plays for a berth in the Little League World Series
Third baseman/pitcher Ryan Delgado can help on mound. Manager Scott Santelli said: “We’re fully loaded from a pitching standpoint.” Credit: Douglas Healey
With three days off between games, the St. James/Smithtown 12U baseball team has had plenty of time to prepare for Friday’s Little League World Series Metro Region championship game.
The team spent a couple of hours on Wednesday at Breen Field in Bristol, Connecticut, watching as its opponent was determined. Fairfield National (Connecticut) defeated Jackson Holbrook (New Jersey), 3-0, in seven innings and will face St. James/Smithtown at 7 p.m. on Friday. The winner of that game, which will be broadcast on ESPN, will advance to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, beginning on Wednesday.
“That was a crazy game,” manager Scott Santelli said of the Connecticut-New Jersey game. “That was one of the best baseball games I’ve watched. A really good game by two really good teams.”
In Saturday’s tournament opener, Fairfield National earned a 2-1 win over Jackson Holbrook in seven innings. Fairfield ace Luca Pellegrini threw 85 pitches in that game, requiring five days of rest and making him ineligible to pitch until Friday. He’ll square off against Bulls ace Jeremy Katz, who struck out nine in 4 1⁄3 innings in Saturday’s 18-0 win over Burrillville (Rhode Island).
“I think that’s the way it should be,” Santelli said. “Let’s have our No. 1 against their No. 1. Big stage. I’m sure the place will be packed with Connecticut fans. We’re trying to pull as many local St. James/Smithtown fans as we can to try to even it out.”
Behind Katz’s two doubles and three RBIs and stingy pitching from Ryan Delgado and Kevin Moran, the Bulls defeated Fairfield, 6-1, on Monday. Even though St. James/Smithtown entered the final undefeated in the tournament, if the Bulls lose to Fairfield on Friday, it will end their incredible run.
“The advantage is we’re fully loaded from a pitching standpoint,” Santelli said. “If the pitch counts get high, we’re probably in a better position to absorb that blow.”
Santelli said the team enjoyed Tuesday’s trip to a park to play disc golf and cornhole. The Bulls had a two-hour practice and spent about an hour at the pool on Wednesday before heading to Breen Field as spectators. They played Wiffle ball after the game.
The team practiced for another two hours on Thursday before heading off the grounds of the A. Bartlett Giamatti Little League Leadership Training Center to allow players to spend some time with their families.
“It’s weird. With three days off, you want to keep them going with baseball, but you can’t play baseball for 10 hours a day,” Santelli said. “It’s awkward being around baseball without playing baseball for these three days. We’re just trying our best to keep them energized.”
While Santelli hopes and expects to have a large group of fans packing the bleachers behind the St. James/Smithtown dugout on Friday, there will be plenty of supporters watching at Bull Smith’s Tavern in Smithtown.
The tavern has held watch parties for each of the team’s first two games of the tournament. St. James/Smithtown Little League president Brian Erni said more than 100 people attended the watch party for Monday’s game, which started at 1 p.m.
“The watch parties are emblematic of what this sport and what these boys mean to all of us,” Erni said. “We all feel like we’re invested. When we had our state championship celebration at Gaynor Park, I turned to my wife and said, ‘It feels like we all won the New York state championship, not just this team.’ It’s part of all of us, and that’s special.”
“My parents were actually there on Monday,” Santelli said. “That was touching and cool to see them there and getting excited and being into it. Seeing them hanging out with my friends and the Little League guys and the kids. That’s awesome stuff to see.”
Erni said reservations for Friday’s watch party already are fully booked. He expects a crowd of about 200 to 300 people. Chuck Knoblauch, who was a part of each of the Yankees’ three World Series titles from 1998-2000, will be in attendance, as the tavern originally scheduled a viewing party for the Yankees-Astros game on Friday night. Erni said most of the tavern’s televisions will be tuned to ESPN to watch the hometown heroes play.
“We joked that you could probably sell your reservation for a pretty penny right now,” Erni said. “I think they’re gonna come out and play the game of their lives on Friday night.”
Matt Lindsay is a high school sports reporter who joined Newsday in 2022 after graduating from Stony Brook University.
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