SALINAS
The San Benito High boys tennis team won its fifth straight match Thursday when it topped host Everett Alvarez 5-2 in Salinas.
The Haybalers have now won nine of their last 10 matches.
The Eagles stole one match each from both the singles and doubles categories, but they couldn’t match San Benito’s depth, which staved off any Alvarez upset.
The No. 1 doubles team of Jon Rudolfs and Michael Jensen defeated Ritchie Contreras and Nate Romis 6-1, 7-5, but Alvarez’ Rainier Nanquil and Anthony Borum returned the favor by beating Conner Bray and Tony Culler 7-6 (7-1), 6-4. The No. 3 pairing of Thomas Parcell and Eric Johnson put San Benito 1-up when they downed Kevin Vo and Brendan Moriyama 4-6, 6-1 and 14-12 in the third-set tiebreaker.
In singles, Eagle P.J. Vargas earned a 6-2, 6-1 victory over San Benito’s Derek Panger, but ‘Balers Mark Tobias, Kyle Skinner and Austin Pan each won their matches to seal the win.
Tobias defeated Jeremy Ortiz 6-3, 6-4; Skinner topped Daniel Chong 6-4, 6-0; and Pan beat Michael Jung 6-3, 7-6 (7-1).
The ‘Balers will play in its final two matches of the regular season next week before kicking off the Tri-County Athletic League Finals. San Benito (9-2 TCAL, 10-3) will host Gilroy Monday before visiting Palma Tuesday. Both matches are slated for 4 p.m.
The TCAL Finals, which will be held at Everett Alvarez High in Salinas, will begin Thursday at 1 p.m.
