St. James-Smithtown slugger wins New York State Little League Home Run Derby title

Meet Kings Park’s Jeremy Katz — or Aaron Judge Jr.? 

The little baseballer made tons of noise by winning the New York State Little League championship’s home run derby on Staten Island, proudly bringing the title back for his St. James-Smithtown squad. 

“The first round, I hit out two out of the five. I felt good, I felt loose,” the confident 12-year-old told The Post of the contest with 24 of the state’s best bats. 

“Then I stepped back up for Round 2, and I was just like, ‘I feel great!’ and then just smacked five — that was the greatest I ever hit in my life,” Katz, a pitcher and first baseman who is batting a massive .870 this summer, added. 

The avid Yankees fan did his homework ahead of the contest, too. During a rain delay at a previous game, he pulled up MLB’s home run derby to study how the pros went about things. 

“A lot of Cal Raleigh’s home runs — he just drives his back knee down right into the floor,” Katz said. “I was just like, ‘You know what, I’m gonna give that a shot — and just bang, bang, bang.” 

Not done yet 

There are bigger things on the horizon now for St. James-Smithtown as the team reached the state final vs. Staten Island’s South Shore on Friday morning after a mighty 2-0 win over White Plains.

Heading into the game, the Westchester squad had only allowed a single run in the entire tournament. 

“I felt good on the mound,” shutout pitcher Kevin Moran said. “My team made a bunch of very good plays, picked me up when I let runners on.” 

Now, morale is quite high among the Long Island baseballers — who are keeping spirits up with competitive tag games around their hotel. 

Fun aside, the squad knows they are one win away from the Metro Regional Tournament in Bristol, Conn., where the boys can punch their ticket to Williamsport. 

“We’re all excited. It’s going to be a good game,” Moran said. “Let’s have fun.”