Call it an Empire State of Mind.
St. James-Smithtown Little League is on top of the world as the 12-year-olds brought home the New York State title and are just a few wins away from Williamsport.
“It feels great — making history with everybody that I’ve been teammates with for four years straight, we’ve been working as hard as we can,” outfielder Eric Hanson told The Post of the program’s first boys New York championship.
The group won it all with a mighty 7-2 performance over Staten Island’s South Shore Little League, a team that St. James-Smithtown lost to, 8-2, in pool play.
Down 2-0 early and struggling with off-speed pitching in Friday morning’s all-or-nothing game, the squad took a beat to rethink strategy, manager Scott Santelli said.
“We basically said, ‘Hey, guys, we’ve got to start looking curveball, not fastball,’ ” he said. “It’s the opposite of what you teach.”
Santelli’s son, left fielder James, recalled that their team had its back to the wall in an earlier do-or-die district tournament against West Sayville, which St. James-Smithtown came back to win.
“We’ve rallied before,” he said, “so I knew that we could do it again.”
Pitcher and New York State home run derby champion Jeremy Katz got his team emotionally back in it by blasting a solo home run in the second inning, cutting South Shore’s lead to 2-1.
Then, it was all Long Island in inning four as St. James-Smithtown blew the game open with a six-run frame during which Katz blasted another two-run homer.
“Jeremy comes up, hits a second home run of the game, the whole crowd’s going crazy,” recalled Hanson. “We were hyping everybody up in the stands. … It felt like a home game for us.”
St. James-Smithtown moves on to the Little League Metro regional tournament, where it will face the best clubs from New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, starting with the latter on Aug. 2 at 7 p.m.
The tournament winner advances to the big show, the Little League World Series in August.
“When I was younger, I always used to watch them on ESPN — and now I’m going to be on there. It’s the achievement of a lifetime,” Santelli said.
“I really think we have a chance.”
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