The Staten Island Little League team isn’t really collecting victories these days – it’s picking up memories.

Even though there will be a national TV audience, there is an innocence to the event.

“It takes you back to sitting in your classroom all day and craving to get out to a Little League field,” said Orel Hershiser, who will be an analyst on ESPN’s coverage.

“It is waiting for Little League sign-ups to come up for baseball season. It is, if you are 10 or 11 years old, wondering if you are going to make the majors or not. It is hoping that you are going to be on the team with your friends.

“It is wanting to hit your first home run when you actually get to play on fields that have fences, to actually hit the ball over your fence. It is pitching and striking out the big, strong kid in your neighborhood. It is throwing the ball against the garage and pretending it is the seventh game of the World Series and you are the pitcher or the hitter.

Ultimately, you play that game until you do it right. You play it until you win the game and you are the hero.” For 12-year-old Frank Smith that dream became reality on Monday when he hit the gameending homer in the bottom of the sixth – and final – inning to send the Staten Island Little Leaguers to Williamsport, Pa.

Now, Smith and his teammates will continue their dream.

“All the kids across the nation are dreaming about it,” Hershiser said. “They are getting to do it.” For Hershiser, his Little League World Series dream ended in a loss, which is the same conclusion all Little Leaguers have, except for one team. Still, the players can leave with memories.

“We made it to the district final and we were down by like six runs and I knew coming up it was going to be my last Little League at-bat,” said Hershiser, who was on an AllStar team from Michigan. “I said, ‘I sure would like to hit a home run.’ And I hit one. It is a huge memory for me.”

SATURDAY

Little League World Series

Staten Island vs. Columbus, Ga.

1 p.m., ESPN