BANNER DAY: Members of the Princeton Little League (PLL) team enjoy the moment after they defeated West End 10-3 last Wednesday at Farmview Fields to win the District 12 Intermediate 50/70 tournament. Over the weekend, PLL went 2-1 at the Section 3 tournament to earn a spot in the final round against Freehold. Pictured in the front row, from left, are Jonathan Tao, Jack Durbin, Eli Sofer, Jensen Bergman, Theo Steiger, Jake Zuckerman, James Petrone, and Bobby Kuczynski. In the back row, from left, are coach Gary Zuckerman, coach Jeff Bergman, Carl Birge, Dhillon Choudhri, Andrew Lambert, Jaxon Petrone, Palmer Maurer, and manager Jon Durbin.

One of the traditional spoils of victory when a Little League team wins a district title involves the players brandishing the championship banner collectively in the post-game celebration.

For the Princeton Little League squad, that image provided motivation as it faced West End last Wednesday at Farmview Fields in a winner-take-all game in the double-elimination District 12 Intermediate 50/70 tournament.

“A couple of minutes before the game started, we said ‘Close your eyes and imagine you are standing up in front of home plate two hours from now, and see yourselves holding the traditional Little League banner,’” said Princeton manager Jon Durbin, whose team had lost 11-2 to West End a day earlier when it had a chance to wrap up the title.

“We said, just envision that; you have got to want it more than West End. If you want that more than they want it, then we are going to be out there holding the banner. So every half inning in the dugout, I would just yell out to them, see the banner.”

Princeton didn’t waste any time showing how much it wanted it, jumping out to a 5-0 lead over West End.

“We came out smoking, we put five runs on the board in the top of the first inning,” said Durbin.

“It was two-out rally for the most part. We had the bases loaded with two outs and the bottom half of our order up. The guys came up and hit three singles in a row and plated five runs. Scoring the five runs in the first inning set the tone.”

With PLL extending the lead to 7-2, it put the game out of reach with a three-run outburst in the top of the seventh, highlighted by a two-run homer by Dhillon Choudhri to win 10-3.

While the Princeton offensive fireworks were impressive, Durbin tipped his hat to the mound effort of starting pitcher Jaxon Petrone.

“Jaxon pitched six innings and threw 94 pitches; it was his longest outing of the whole spring/summer by far,” said Durbin.

“I can tell you from watching a ton of PLL district games over the last decade that his performance was one of the all-time great performances. He just had them baffled the entire game. They just couldn’t figure him out so he got the game ball. He had a great offensive performance throughout the tournament but that pitching effort was key.”

Having finished second in the District 12 tourney after winning the title in 2014 and 2015, PLL was thrilled to be holding the championship banner again.

“For the 11 returning players on the team, they felt like it was vindication for them,” said Durbin.

“They really came through and nailed it. They felt like they had let one get away last year. For them, the big thing was to come back and really get it done this time.”

In coming through, PLL focused on being gritty. “A huge point that we have made to them is that when you get to this level, most of the teams are pretty good,” said Durbin.

“So if everyone has a lot of baseball ability, the team that is usually going to come out and win it is almost always the team that wants it the most. It is the team that is willing to play the hardest, get the little things right all of the time, and work really well together.”

On Friday evening, PLL applied that lesson in Section 3 play as it overcame a 9-7 sixth inning deficit to edge Sayerwood South 11-9 in Middletown.

“It looked like it was slipping away from us at that point,” recalled Durbin, who got another big game from Choudhri in the win as he went 2-for-3 with a homer, two runs, and three RBIs.

“I laid it on the line. I said, ‘If you want to be sectional champs, you have got pull it together now and bring the hammer down on these guys.’ We put four runs on the board and we got them 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh.”

After suffering a 20-0 loss to a powerful Freehold team on Saturday in a winner’s bracket contest, Princeton bounced back with a 6-4 win over Barnegat in an elimination game a day later.

“Coming into today, that 20-0 game could have really devastated them but they got back up today and they came at them,” said Durbin, who got two homers from Andrew Lambert in the win, including one to lead off the game.

“They got after this team. They stayed in front, they played really good defense, and the pitching was tremendous.”

In defeating Barnegat and advancing to the final round of the sectional against Freehold, PLL got a tremendous effort from starting pitcher Bobby Kuczynski.

“Bobby pitched today 5 2/3 innings today with 65 pitches.” said Durbin. “He is more of a classic pitcher. He can put zip on the ball, he changes speeds, and he elevates the ball. He is a complete pitcher with a package of pitches.”

With Princeton playing Freehold on July 5 needing a win to force winner-take-all finale the next day, Durbin believes his players will rise to the occasion.

“We told them after the game that you guys are extraordinary, you are only the second team in the history of PLL to reach a sectional championship round,” said Durbin, noting that the 2015 PLL team had made it to the sectional final round.

“We said that if you are willing to go one step farther and not just settle for making the championship round and do all the things we have been talking about to win it, you are going to have a chance to win.”