COTORRO, Cuba -- Manuel Saladrigas stood back at first, staring shyly at the boys from Baltimore visiting his sports academy yesterday. Finally, his curiosity propelled him forward.

"What is that?" the 13-year-old asked in a small voice, looking at the unfamiliar sticks and balls brandished by pupils from St. Ignatius Loyola Academy.

That's lacrosse, hon.

The St. Ignatius boys were supposed to play baseball against the Cuban pupils as part of the hoopla leading up to the Baltimore Orioles' game tomorrow.

Turns out, though, that you can take the boy out of Baltimore, but you can't take the lacrosse stick out of his hand.

Led by their headmaster and lax geek, Jeff Sindler, several of the St. Ignatius boys decided to add the local pastime to the national pastime as part of the agenda for yesterday's visit to Escuela de Iniciacion Deportiva Escolar, a school where youngsters with athletic potential receive specialized training.

The pupils were waiting when the buses bearing the St. Ignatius contingent and children from the Washington area arrived yesterday morning. The smallest children, the elementary school kids, were lined up on one balcony and had taken off their red Young Pioneer kerchiefs and waved them madly as they alternately chanted, "Bienvenidos, bienvenidos!" ("Welcome!") and "Play ball, play ball!"

The Cuban pupils are plucked from their neighborhood schools when they show potential for a sport and are trained here in athletics and academics. Manuel, for example, has been here for four years and plays table tennis.

While others ran off to play baseball, basketball and soccer with their new Cuban friends, Sindler and a handful of St. Ignatius boys introduced the fine art of scooping, dodging and cradling to Manuel and his friends.

They paired off, one American and one Cuban. They started by tossing the ball back and forth, stick to stick. Some of the St. Ignatius boys know a bit of Spanish, but most of the instruction took the form of watching and mirroring, a hand reaching out to right a stick into the proper close-to-the-ear position.

Whatever it is about boys and sticks, the Cuban boys picked up the basics quickly. Soon, Manuel was doing that twitchy, twirling thing that lax players do, cradling the ball in the head of their stick.

Sindler explained more about the game, as an interpreter translated into Spanish. Upon hearing a goal was involved, Manuel offered that the school has a hockey field with a goal, and the group set off to try out the new skills. Passing an oxen-drawn cart pulling men and huge bunches of plantains, they settled down to something like a game.

"It's the first faceoff in Cuba," Sindler exulted as he planted the ball between two players to start.

The handful of Spanish words some of the St. Ignatius boys know came in handy. "Corras!" Desmond Tyson, 13, called out, and everyone started running, passing the ball back and forth. "Aqui!" worked when you wanted a teammate to pass to you.

"We should have these guys on our team," Desmond told Sindler.

The St. Ignatius boys made such good teachers perhaps because the sport is new to them as well. Most are from Baltimore neighborhoods where the sport associated with private prep schools has only recently begun making inroads, and most learned it at the academy.

When Jorge Luis Gomez Gonzalez, 13, missed one catch, his partner, Vernon Canphor, 12, took the opportunity to show him how to plant his feet wide, lean over and scoop the ball up from the ground.

"I remember when I first learned, it was hard because everyone else knew how to play but I didn't," said Vernon, who learned the sport two years ago. "I was getting frustrated, so I knew not to get frustrated with him."

All the running on the shadeless field during a scorching morning soon claimed what Sindler calls victims of lacrosse. Boys wandered off for breathers, but there was still so much to learn and to teach.

Manuel had been trying to speak to his new friends all day even though he knows only a couple words of English. Still, he persisted.

"Escuela?" he asked several boys from St. Ignatius. "Money?" he asked, rubbing his fingers together in the universal sign language.

No, he was told, the St. Ignatius pupils are on scholarship.

He pointed to himself. "Escuela," he said, rubbing his fingers and shaking his head. "No." School is free here.

"Hospital," he said, again rubbing his fingers and shaking his head. "No." It's free, too.

Pub Date: 3/27/99