Toms River National Little League parents cheer their boys on

TOMS RIVER, N.J. - Tammy Deceglie has her good-luck angel pin.

Ron Marinaccio, with the booming voice, likes to sit close to the field so he can lead the cheering section.

Linda Tran gets so anxious, she usually sits alone and covers her eyes.

Meet the cheer-worn, nerve-wracked parents of the Toms River National Little League all-stars, who will become the first New Jersey team in 11 years to compete in the Little League World Series when the eight-day tournament starts Friday in Williamsport, Pa.

The 13 players and their coaches arrived in Williamsport on Tuesday afternoon after defeating Bucks County's Council Rock-Newtown on Monday night at the Mid-Atlantic Regional championship in Bristol, Conn.

The parents, meanwhile, headed home to Toms River to catch their breath after nearly two weeks of excitement at the regional.

For them, Tuesday and Wednesday were "laundry days" - a happy but harried time to unpack and repack as well as clean the house, pick up dogs from the kennel, and perhaps squeeze in some hours at work before piling back into their cars on Thursday for the four-hour trip to central Pennsylvania.

"It's been a blur," said Reneé Marinaccio, whose son Patrick, 12, plays shortstop and swatted a big home run in the last game against Council Rock-Newtown.

"Right now we're taking a breath," added Melissa Lumi, whose Billy, 13, made a spectacular diving catch in right field Monday night and landed on ESPN's Top 10 highlight reel. "As soon as we play our first game on Saturday, we'll all be a nervous mess again."

The Toms River parents have cheered their hearts out since late June, when their children played their first sectional playoff games.

It's been a thrilling ride. The Jersey champions staved off elimination 10 times in their march to the series.

This isn't the town's first series. Toms River Little League East defeated Japan for the World title in 1998 and competed again in 1999.

But this is the first time that Toms River National, the other league in this Ocean County township, has made it to Williamsport, and these players - ages 11 to 13 - were infants the last time around, if they were alive at all.

"The town is filled with a sense of electricity," said Mayor Thomas Kelaher. "People are stopping to high-five in the street."

For Monday's game, hundreds flocked to the Ritacco Center, the high-school sporting complex in town, to watch on big-screen televisions. Now banners and signs decorate storefront windows and charter buses are scheduled to depart for Williamsport.

At the World Series, the parents will hole up in the same hotel, and barbecue and maintain the same superstitions and game-day routines they've developed over two months.

"It all has to do with keeping up the good luck," Reneé Marinaccio said.

In Connecticut, the mothers sat together in the grandstands, their toenails painted the royal blue of the children's uniforms. Since then they've stocked up on orange polish to match the jerseys the players will sport in the series.

No matter how tense the situation on the field, Debbie Hertgen - whose 12-year-old, Joey, is catcher and plays outfield - was the calming voice, repeating, "We're good. We're good."

Tammy Deceglie - whose son Anthony, 12, plays first base, and whose husband, Paul, is the team manager - followed every pitch while twisting her angel pin in her hand.

A friend's son found it in the outfield before a district playoff game at a field where Tammy Deceglie's father, George Roehrig, watched the team play. Roehrig died in October.

"It's my angel in the outfield," Deceglie said.

Linda Tran, whose son Kevin Blum is one of the team's power hitters, nervously paces the parking lot or searches for four-leaf clovers in the grass before game time. She collected 26 - two for each player, for extra luck - and taped them on an orange placard bearing each boy's name. At games, she uses the sign to cover her eyes.

"I get so nervous," she said.

Over the course of two playoff games, Kevin, 13, smashed six home runs in six consecutive at-bats.

After hearing the ping of the aluminum bat and the roar of the crowd, Tran peeked between her fingers to see the ball land over the fence and her son round the bases.

Ron Marinaccio leads the cheers. "I like to holler," he explains.

"We are!" he yells throughout the game.

"TR!" the Toms River section answers.

"Ahhh!" he shouts for emphasis.

Bill Lumi likes to hug the railing of the grandstand. It gives him something to hold onto during tense moments, like in the seconds before his son Billy made that diving catch in the outfield. Afterward, Billy hopped to his feet, held his glove high, and flashed a smile that captured all the fun and innocence of Little League.

"The mothers just went, 'Awww,' " Tammy Deceglie said.

At home, the parents have kept in touch with their boys via text messages. The players are dorming next to the Japanese team, and despite the language barrier, the two groups have become fast friends, the parents said.

"This is awesome, I'm playing Ping-Pong with Japan," Anthony Deceglie texted his mother on Wednesday.

While the parents have attempt to calm their frazzled nerves and rest their throats, their boys have been having the "time of their lives," Paul Deceglie said Wednesday by phone from Williamsport.

As he talked, he could see his players in the swimming pool after a morning practice and an ESPN video shoot. They were trying to see who could make the biggest splash, he said.

"They're just a bunch of little kids having fun," he said.