GLENS FALLS -- In a summer of surreal moments, there's one that stood out for Tony Clausen.

It was 1998 and he was 12 years old, playing with his buddies in a little tournament called the Little League World Series, in Williamsport, Pa.

On the first night Clausen and the Georgetown (Mich.) All-Stars were in town, a bunch of autograph seekers approached Clausen for his signature.

One of them was an 8-year-old boy.

"I'm 12 years old and some kid four years younger is asking for my autograph and was all excited when I signed it," Clausen said this week, chuckling. "I mean, that's just weird.

"But that's how that whole summer was," he said.

Clausen is now 19, a few weeks from his 20th birthday, and a center fielder for the Glens Falls Golden Eagles' New York Collegiate Baseball League team.

Seven years have passed since what is likely to be the athletic highlight of his life, but the memories are still there, thick as an August haze.

Clausen and a dozen other boys from the small town of Jenison, Mich. (about 10 miles from Grand Rapids) did something no area team had done in a generation, reaching the Little League World Series as the U.S. Central representative.

The Michigan kids didn't win, losing two contests and winning one, but the experience left an indelible mark on Clausen.

"We'd never played in front of more than 500 people, and that first night (Aug. 23, 1998), there were 22,000 in the stands," Clausen said. "I would've been nervous if I had thought about it. Looking back now, I can't believe I wasn't that nervous."

The 5-foot-11 Clausen's journey to Williamsport, and now to Michigan State, where he's entering his sophomore year this fall, began in Jenison, where he was the youngest of four kids born to Kyle and Sue Clausen.

Kyle Clausen was a star athlete in high school as well --"I've got eight (varsity) letters, he's only got seven," Tony said -- and Tony and his older brother Joe competed at everything.

"I've got some video of Tony at age 2, playing baseball," Kyle said. "He's been intense since the day he was born."

As Tony grew up, he and the boys his age slowly began to excel on the diamond, reaching the Little League state championship game when they were 10 and 11, but falling short both times.

Finally the Jenison boys broke through and reached the regionals in Indianapolis, but looked to be brokenhearted again when they lost two games in the tournament.

But according to coach Tom Meyer, the team advanced to the finals thanks to having a better run differential than the other squads, and with one more win Clausen and his friends achieved the ultimate.

"We were so excited, but we didn't even have much time to celebrate," he remembered. "We won a game at night, and then the next day we had to leave for Williamsport. You wish now that you were older and could appreciate more of what was going on, like the parade the town threw for us, and getting to go on the field for a (Detroit) Tigers game. It just all happened so fast."

Clausen, one of the team's top stars, got the call to pitch the LLWS opener. In a decision that Meyer still regrets, Clausen threw an astronomical 175 pitches in an extra-inning loss to Toms River, N.J.

A few days later, the Michigan kids lost again, but returned home as kings.

"You worry as a parent how a kid is going to react after something like that, because first you want the kids to stay level-headed," Kyle Clausen said. "But we also talked to Tony about how lucky he was to get that chance."

For Clausen, Williamsport was just the beginning. He went on to star at Jenison High School in football and baseball. On the diamond, Clausen hit .428 his senior year and led Jenison to the 2004 MHSAA Division I state championship game.

He settled on Michigan State for its location (only about an hour from home) and because it had recruited him the longest.

"I think the first letter I got was from them, after my sophomore year," Clausen said. "Most of the people I talked to advised me to go somewhere I could play right away."

Clausen, a speedy outfielder who batted in the middle of the Michigan State lineup, did have a big impact for the Spartans, who are led by former Golden Eagles star Ryan Basham. Clausen hit .299 this spring with four home runs and 23 RBIs in 42 games.

Interim Michigan State head coach Tony Young sees a big future for Clausen.

"He's got a very quick bat, and he drives the ball exceptionally well," Young said. "Plus, as a former pitcher he's got great arm strength, which helps defensively."

Clausen hopes to improve this summer, swiping bases and spraying line drives all over East Field. But he knows his future likely lies elsewhere, which is why he's majoring in kinesiology.

Still, while his future is uncertain, his past has a place in history where he grew up.

"I still talk to almost all of those guys," Clausen said. "We laugh about it, and we know 50 years from now some people will still remember us. It's pretty cool to be remembered."