Sports

Regardless of what happens at the Salinas Golf and Country Club on Monday, the San Benito boys golf team knows what it needs to do at the Tri-County Athletic League championships: Beat Palma.

San Benito senior Kyle Skinner waited nearly four years to experience a team-based tennis playoffs. This year, thanks to a perfect 10-0 record inside the Tri-County Athletic League’s Mountain Division, Skinner and the Balers accomplished that goal.

For the first time this year, the San Benito softball team found out what it’s like to lose a Tri-County Athletic League game. The Balers fell to Salinas 1-0 Tuesday — and now have lost two of their past seven games.

Before his freshman year at Arizona State started, former San Benito alumnus Darin Gillies considered all possibilities entering his first campaign.

At two track and field invitationals over the weekend, the San Benito men’s team didn’t grab a top eight finish, but the girls squad — behind school-record setter Vanessa Estrada — finished in seventh place in both the Central Coast Section Top 8 Classic and the Bill Kearney Invitational.

After a Tri-County Athletic season that came almost too easy for the San Benito swim teams, Friday’s meet against Salinas represented the closest and toughest meet of the year.

With six Tri-County Athletic League banners lining the outfield fence at San Benito High, the Baler players don’t need to be told how important league games are — especially against northern-rival Gilroy.