Play it again, ‘Balers.
Gilroy – Play it again, ‘Balers.
And that’s just what San Benito did Wednesday as it repeated what it did the first time it met Gilroy by nabbing a 4-3 Tri-County Athletic League win.
In a second close encounter between two teams that are almost even, the Haybalers (5-4) succeeded by winning two close matches and winning three of four singles matches. Once-beaten Derek Panger, who has been Mr. Reliable in singles, overcame a second-set loss to beat Matt Chan 6-2, 3-6, 10-4 at No. 2 singles.
“He steps up and does the job whether he plays No. 2 or 3,” San Benito coach Leanna Morgan said.
Mark Tobias won the most one-sided match of the day, defeating Michael Tajan 6-1, 6-2 in No. 3 singles. Connor Bray beat Takashi Miwa 6-4, 7-5. Thus, all the ‘Balers had to do was win one doubles match. And the No. 1 team of D.J. Nielson and Jon Rudolfs took care of that by beating Sai Erdenchemeg and Sang Min Park 6-3, 6-4.
“Under the circumstances, we did pretty well,” Morgan said. “We came back and picked up where we left off (the match started Tuesday) and got solid singles play. Our No. 1 doubles team did a great job as well.”
Gilroy winners were Ben Wilson, who defeated Danny Coffey 6-2, 6-3; Esteban Delgadillo and Edwin Hernandez, who beat Austin Pan and Michael Labugnen 6-0, 6-7, 10-3; and Zach Singh and Mitch Souza, who got past Joe Frusetta and Sean Fridman, 7-5, 6-4.
The ‘Balers are at Ridgemark Golf and Country Club at 3:30pm today to host Monte Vista Christian.
