By Marc David & Scott Campbell
Marissa Gutierrez sets high standards for herself, which is why the junior San Benito golfer wasn’t too impressed that her 46 was the best score on a breezy day at Gilroy Golf Course.
In fact, she was happier that her Balers’ teammates came through as San Benito shot 202 and won the Tri-County Athletic League Group N event Tuesday.
That was helped along by No. 3 Balers’ golfer Katie O’Brien shooting 48 to tie for second best with Monte Vista Christian’s Katelyn Ingusoll, who might have had the most interesting round of any of the girls.
Ingusoll had two 8s and a 7, and yet she rolled in a 3-foot birdie putt on No. 5 and almost chipped in for a birdie on No. 6 in an up-and-down round. MVC was second in the team scoring at 223.
Gilroy was third overall at 232, paced by seniors Annie Cockerill (52) and Rowena Tabilas (55). Tabilas had the shot of the day for the Mustangs, lofting an 80-yard wedge 1-foot past the third hole, and tapping in for a par.
“I wish I would have had more of those,” Tabilas said. “My short game was missing (other than that shot).”
Only three girls broke 50 for the day. Ashley Bushaw (52) and Nydia Martinez (56) rounded out San Benito’s scoring.
“It’s a short, tight course,” Balers’ coach Chris Branon said of Gilroy GC. “If you hit the ball anywhere sideways, you’re going to have a tough time. We didn’t play our best, but we played well enough.”
The long-hitting Gutierrez is normally in the low 40s. She struggled with her alignment and made only three pars.
“My alignment is what killed me today,” Gutierrez said. “I need to work on that. I’ve been pretty consistently shooting in the low 40s. I need to break into the high 30s.”
Cockerill tied for the fourth best score, and yet was bitterly disappointed in herself less than a week after shooting 44 on the same course.
“That’s horrible,” said Gilroy’s No. 1 golfer after checking her scorecard. “I can do better.”
She couldn’t do much better than the up-and-down she had on the par-5 fifth hole. After hitting her third shot long, Cockerill was faced with a delicate flop shot to have any chance at par. She hit the chip 5 feet below the hole and made the putt.
It was that type of day for many of the girls Tuesday. There were long putts dropping, excellent chips like those hit by Tabilas and Cockerill, and the booming drives of Gutierrez. And yet none of the girls were able to sustain their efforts throughout nine holes.
GIRLS’ Tennis
The San Benito girls’ tennis team improved to 3-1 in Tri-County Athletic League matches with its 7-0 defeat of host Alvarez on Tuesday. Behind straight-set victories in all but one of match, the ‘Balers continued to impress head coach Ed Cecena with their improvement.
“It shows that the girls are progressing,” Cecena said. “I can see improvement every day. Even when they lose, they learn from their losses.”
The surging ‘Balers welcomed back Kaitlyn O’Keefe, who had been awaiting the completion of CCS paperwork upon transferring back from Salinas High. O’Keefe, playing in the No. 2 singles slot, had the only real test of the afternoon, eventually prevailing 6-3, 4-6, 10-4.
“Her opponent was pretty tough,” Cecena said. “It was good to see her win her first match in an impressive way. She really had to battle, and she pulled it out.”
San Benito (5-5) completely swamped Alvarez in the other six matches, winning five of them by scores of either 6-0, 6-1 or 6-1, 6-1.
After the ‘Balers opened league play with a 7-0 loss to Notre Dame, they have won three straight TCAL matches. “If we keep beating the teams we’re supposed to beat, we should be in good shape,” Cecena said. “It really comes down to, if we play our cards right, us and Notre Dame. … It’s just a matter of getting these girls to improve enough to have a chance against Notre Dame the second time around.”
The Notre Dame rematch is set for Oct. 5. In the meantime, San Benito returns to the court today, when it visits Aptos in a non-league match at 3:30pm.
GIRLS’ VOLLEYBALL
After splitting four games at the Harbor Tournament on Saturday, the San Benito girls’ volleyball team returned to Tri-County Athletic League play with a sweep of host Alvarez two days later.
With junior middle blocker Ali Sharp sidelined with an injury, the Lady ‘Balers won their first two games at Harbor, but dropped their next two, falling to St. Mary’s (Berkeley) and Harbor.
“It just messed up our timing a little bit,” coach Dean Askanas said. “We just played really sluggish. Even though we beat (Chico and Soquel), we weren’t playing very well.”
After falling to St. Mary’s last season in the Harbor Tournament semifinals, the ‘Balers again lost to the 2005 CIF Division IV champion.
San Benito (17-4) had previously defeated Harbor in three games this season.
The ‘Balers returned to league play on Monday and defeated Alvarez 25-10, 25-12, 25-13. Junior Emily Korsten had 12 kills, setter Chelsea Fowles had 18 assists and seven kills, and sophomore Courtney Scarlett posted a match-high nine service aces.
The ‘Balers look to improve to 4-0 in the TCAL when they host Alisal tonight at 6:30pm.
