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Sports

Garden City Eliminates Mineola Baseball from Playoffs

Trojans advances as Garden City head coach Rich Smith collects 600th career victory.

For 39 seasons, the Garden City baseball program has undergone a lot of changes.

Players have come and gone and championships have been won and lost but one constant has remained in the Trojans dugout: head coach Rich Smith, who picked up win No. 600 Saturday as the Trojans eliminated Mineola in the quarterfinals of Nassau County’s Baseball Playoffs 6-1 at .

Smith is the second-winningest coach in Nassau County baseball history, trailing only Levittown-Division’s Doug Robins’ 654 wins. A victory in the semi-finals of the 2011 Nassau County Playoffs would move Smith into a tie for second all-time for wins in Long Island with East Islip’s Sal Ciampi (601). The Garden City head coach is also ranked ninth all-time in New York State history.

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“What I’m most proud of is that I got this milestone with these kids,” Smith said. “They’ve been with me for a long time. I appreciate that they gave it to me.”

Smith attributed his success over his 39 years as Head Coach of Garden City to the many great players and teams he’s managed.

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“I feel like a jockey riding a lot of good horses,” Smith joked. “There’s a lot of factors and it’s not just this team. 600 wins is a lot and I’ve had a lot of good ball players come through Garden City. Every one of them made a contribution to this milestone. But, the most important thing is that we’re moving on to the final four. That is the success of the day.”

After Mineola had rolled offensively in their first three playoff games,, Garden City managed to subdue the Mustangs offense 9-1 Friday. Mineola opened the three-game series with a win but dropped the next two contests to end their playoff run. The ninth seeded Mustangs finished the 2011 season with a 13-11 record.

Garden City starting pitcher Darryl Tan pitched his first varsity complete game in the clincher, limiting Mineola to one runs on four hits with four strikeouts. Mineola head coach Helms Bohringer noted Tan’s ability to locate with breaking pitches as the main reason Mineola wasn’t able to get the offense going.

“You have to tip your hat to their pitcher Tan,” Bohringer said. “He threw strikes with his breaking ball and changeup and kept us off balance. Not too many balls were hit hard and if we’re not going to hit the ball hard, we’re not going to win.”

Tan kept the Mustangs hitless through three and two-thirds innings before Nick Palma lined a single to center to record Mineola’s first hit of the day. Mike Cerquiera would blast a solo shot to right field to break up Tan’s shutout bid in the top of the seventh but Tan would field a Billy Sullivan grounder to advance Garden City into the semi-final round.

“He was tested today but he just took charge of this game,” Smith said of Tan’s performance. “This is the finest game he’s pitched in the three years that he’s been with us.”

Mineola hurler John Caputo would duel Tan with zeroes until the fourth inning when the Trojans broke through. Frank Cordio led the inning off with a base hit and moved to second after Caputo balked him over and the Mustang defense would misplay a sacrifice from Mike Borges to put runners at the corners with no outs and the middle of the Trojans lineup due to hit. James Cauchi’s sacrifice fly to left field put Garden City ahead, 1-0. Back-to-back RBI doubles from Brandon Samardich and Scott Conetta capped a four inning fourth that would provide all the run support Darryl Tan would need. 

Of the 18 players on the Mineola Baseball team, 12 seniors played their last game of their high school careers on Saturday against Garden City.

“If you would have told me we would be a top six team and one game away from the semi-finals, I’d sign up for it,” Bohringer said. “It’s not the dream I was hoping for with these guys. We fell one game short. We’ll try to go get ‘em and rebuild for next season.”

Garden City will play Island Trees in the semi-finals on Monday.


1 2 3 4 5 6 7

R H E Mineola 0
0 0 0 0 0 1

1 4 3 Garden City
0 0 4 0 2 0 -

6 7 0

 

Mineola Batting Statistics














Player PA AB H 1B 2B HR SAC BB K RBI Runs BA OB% SLUG SB Ryan Jenkins
3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 0 Craig Weber
3 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .333 .333
.333 0 Jimmy Bulva 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 0 Nick Palma 3 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .333 .333 .333 1 John Caputo 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .000 .000 .000 0 Mike Cerqueira 3 3 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 .333 .333 1.33 0 Tom Ward
3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 0 Steve O'Connor
3 2 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .333 .500 .333 0 Billy Sullivan
3 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .500 .000 0
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