The San Benito High softball team earned the top seed in the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs. The Haybalers (23-3) received an opening-round bye and play the winner of No. 8 Watsonville (16-11) and No. 9 Piedmont Hills (16-8) on Saturday at a time and location to be determined.
San Benito has actually played both of those teams this season, whipping Piedmont Hills 12-1 in the first game of the season and throttling Watsonville 16-0 on April 29. The Balers are ready to make a run at a 10th section title in the last 11 years.
“The way this team is playing, anything is possible,” Balers coach Andrew Barragan said. “We’re certainly not going to look past Piedmont Hills or Watsonville, because they are two deserving teams. In the case of Piedmont Hills, they might be a totally different team than the one we saw months ago.”
San Benito High’s baseball team earned the No. 7 seed in the Open Division playoffs. The Balers (16-7) start the postseason at home on Wednesday against No. 10 Los Gatos (20-12), which won the always tough Santa Clara Valley De Anza Division with a 13-1 record before losing a best-of-three series against Palo Alto in the league playoff finals.
If the Balers beat Los Gatos, they advance to a quarterfinal contest on Saturday. In other high school sports news, Balers sophomore Jack Breger made the all-MBL Gabilan Division First Team for boys volleyball. Fellow sophomore Saul Martinez made the second team at setter, and sophomore Dominic Garcia made the sportsmanship team.
The MBL Track and Field Masters/CCS Qualifier took place last Friday at Gilroy High. All of the Balers who were expected to make Saturday’s CCS Championship Semifinals got through.
Some of the key highlights included Marisa Villegas winning the 1600-meter run in 5 minutes, 4.84 seconds; Nolan Sanchez winning the 800 in a personal-record 1:56.11; Juan Gutierrez winning the 1600 in 4:26.21; Elijah Changco winning the 3200 in 9:42.13; Isaac Regalado winning the 110 hurdles in 15.30; Annie Breger winning the triple jump in 35-10.25; freshman Emily Quinby finishing second to Villegas in the 800 in 2:24.47; freshman William Castellanos taking second in the 400 in 50.77; and Daniel Pasillas placing second in the shot put in 47-4.50.
