Notebook: Garden City's Quiet Competition

As the Garden City baseball team took care of business against Herricks on Saturday at Frank Kiernan Field, it was impossible to ignore the commotion a few hundred yards beyond the left-field fence.

The Garden City boys lacrosse team was taking on rival Manhassat in the 119th Woodstick Classic, and with the roaring crowd, MSG Varsity camera crew and blaring public address announcer, anyone within five blocks of the high school knew it.

The popularity of Garden City's lacrosse program is undeniable. Coach Steve Finnell's Trojans have won four straight Nassau County Class B titles and are a consistent nationally-ranked powerhouse. Rich Smith has watched the sport explode in relevance in his 38 years as Garden City's baseball coach, but he tries not to worry about how many potentially great baseball players picked up the stick instead of the bat.

"My attitude is I can't worry about what's going on over at the lacrosse field," Smith said. "We have to coach the kids that come to our program."

Before the lacrosse youth league boom, Smith endured the indignity of watching a player dominate in summer league baseball before heading to the lacrosse fields when school was back in session. Today there is less crossover for the two sports.

It's either baseball or lacrosse, and Smith has to hope the talented athletes come his way.

"It runs in cycles," Smith said. "Some senior classes are baseball loaded. Other senior classes are lacrosse loaded. It changes from year to year."

Trojans pitching coach Mike Sweeney marveled at how often both programs have found success in the same year. In 2000, the lacrosse and baseball teams captured state championships on the same day.

"We've won [county titles] and lacrosse has won [county titles] in the same years," Sweeney said. "That's almost unheard of."

He added, "We must be sharing the wealth."

Test before the test: Shortstop James Cauchi was one of several juniors who took their all-important SAT subject tests on Saturday morning prior to the Trojans' meeting with Herricks.

"I was at school by 7:45, after that it was to the field for 11:30 hitting here, and then the game at 2," said Cauchi. "A big day."

Cauchi took tests in U.S. history and math. It doesn't take a mathematical genius to figure out that the shortstop's 21-for-42 start gives him an even .500 batting average.

Trojan shuffle: A new-look Garden City lineup was the news of the day against Herricks, and it sounds like Smith won't mess with an order that piled up 17 hits on Saturday.

"You'll probably see the same lineup on Monday," said Smith, referring to today's game at South Side. "We'll see what coach and I come up with, but we generated 14 runs [Saturday] so it must be okay."

Playoff push: Garden City will have a much better idea of where it stands by the end of the week. The Trojans play four league games, and how they perform will go a long way in determining their playoff positioning.

Entering Monday, Garden City has a 6-5 league mark (7-5 overall), which puts the team 2.5 games behind Clarke in Conference A-1.

"I think we can play with any team in this league," said center fielder Mike Giannone. "This group can definitely make a run at county."

Garden City captured its last conference title in 2007.

Coming up: Garden City begins its busiest stretch of the season today when the team hits the road to begin a home-and-home with South Side. The Trojans host South Side on Tuesday before heading to Wantagh for a makeup game on Wednesday. They finish their week with a road showdown against first-place Clarke. All games are at 4:30 p.m.