Menlo lays claim to state title

It wasn’t close. Other than the loss at No. 2 doubles, Menlo dominated in their six wins, winning them all in straight sets.

The Knights really shined in the four singles matches, where Siddharth Chari, Andrei Volgin, Brandon Aprill and John Kim combined to lose only eight games. Volgin and Aprill each lost only one game, Chari only two.

Bo Leschly and Clark Safran gave the Knights a dominant 6-3, 6-1 victory at No. 1 doubles, while the No. 3 doubles team of Justin Tian and Luca St. Goar needed three set to post a 4-6, 6-4, (9-7) win.

The win was the ninth Nor Cal championship for Menlo, but its first since 2015, which was the last of seven titles in a row. St. Ignatius had beaten Menlo the last two seasons.

“They took [losing to S.I.] hard last year. Real hard,” Shine said. “They talked about it all the time (throughout this season). That’s a good thing. It makes them work harder.”

While the Nor Cal title was the crowning achievement, it was winning the championship of the prestigious National Invitational Tournament during spring break that propelled Menlo to one of the nation’s top teams — if not the best.

“(Being named a national champion) is not official, but all I know is, we’re one of the best teams of any high school (in the country),” said Shine, who wrapped up his 22nd season with the Knights and eclipsed the 1,000-win mark this year.

Shine has no problem, however, saying his team is the best in the state. While it wasn’t an official tournament to decide a state title — the California Interscholastic Federation does not yet have a state tournament for tennis — one only need to connect the dots.

“Peninsula High School and Harvard Westlake were in the Southern California championship match,” Shine said. “We beat them both (at the NIT).”

It was after that tournament championship that Shine said the team started to seriously think about running the table. Winning the West Bay Athletic League title was merely a formality and the Knights continued their dominance in the Central Coast Section tournament, dropping only three points in three matches, which culminated with a 5-2 win over Bellarmine.

“As we got close to the end, [the team] was talking about going undefeated,” Shine said. “At the end (of the school year), in CSS time, Nor Cal time, it’s awful easy to pack it in. It’s awful easy to check out. That was the motivating thing to finish it off — going undefeated. It just doesn’t happen (all the time).”

The Nor Cal victory capped an amazing school season for Shine, personally. By virtue of his team going undefeated, Shine now has a record of 1,017-147 as coach for both the Menlo boys’ and girls’ teams. He’s led the Menlo tennis program to a combined 23 CCS titles and 18 Nor Cal crowns and in March was inducted into the Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame.

“It’s just a dream season to have all this come down all in one season,” Shine said. “I’ll never forget it.”

CCS baseball

Carlmont’s season came to a heartbreaking end Tuesday night when top-seeded Bellarmine escaped with a 1-0 win with an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh inning at Santa Clara’s Washington Park.

With the game scoreless after 6 1/2 innings, Bellarmine pushed across the game’s only run in the Bells’ final at-bat. Matthew Pinelli, who reached on an error, moved around to third and scored on a Mason Eng fielder’s choice. Eng hit a grounder to shortstop, who went to the plate with the ball, with Pinelli beating the throw and sending the Bells into the Division I championship game.

Jordan Brandenburg was the hard-luck loser for Carlmont (17-12). He came on in the seventh to relieve starter Lucas Billot, who was fantastic in his final high school appearance. Billot worked the first six innings, limiting the Bells to just four singles. He also struck out seven Bellarmine batters, but walked six.

Billot was aided big time by the Scots’ defense, which turned a pair of double plays to kill Bellarmine rallies. Billot also picked off a runner at first base, as did Brandenburg, who threw behind a Bellarmine base runner at first base during his six innings as the Scots’ catcher.

Billot matched Bellarmine starter Wes Harper pitch for pitch. Harper earned the win with a complete-game effort, scattering four Carlmont hits, striking out seven and walking one.

The Scots had their chances to get to Harper. In the second, David Bedrosian led off with a double. Zane VanArsdel used a sacrifice bunt to get Bedrosian to third, but the Scots could not get him home. In the fifth, Billot and Will Klieves had back-to-back, two-out singles but, again, the Scots could not come up with the clutch hit.

Bellarmine (25-7) will face No. 11 Los Altos (17-14) in the Division I championship game, 4 p.m. Saturday at San Jose Municipal Stadium. Los Altos advanced with a 10-0 win over No. 2 Piedmont Hills.

CCS golf

The Menlo School boys’ golf team qualified for the state championship round for the first time in school history with a second-place team finish at the Northern California championship tournament Monday at Woodbridge Country Club in Galt.

While the Knights have qualified several individuals over the years for the state tournament, this is the first time the team qualified for the finals.

The Knights, who finished in second place at CCS last week, lost out to De La Salle-Concord Monday by a single stroke — 377 to 378. Kripa Dharan shot a 73 to lead Menlo, while Jeremy Yun finished with a 75. Co-captains John Weingart and Max Ting both shot 76s, and Charlie Hsieh’s 78 gave all five Menlo golfers sub-80 rounds.

The state tournament is next Wednesday at San Gabriel Country Club in San Gabriel.

CCS softball

San Mateo will be carrying the PAL flag into the CCS Division I tournament this afternoon when the take on CCS power San Benito in a semifinal game at 4:30 p.m. at PAL Stadium in San Jose.

San Mateo is the last baseball or softball team from San Mateo County still standing. Hillsdale and Half Moon Bay softball, along with Serra and Carlmont baseball, were eliminated in semifinals games Tuesday.

If 11th-seeded San Mateo has anything going for it, aside from its talent, its head coach Alyssa Jepsen, who appeared in more CCS games during her high school career at Notre Dame-Belmont than San Mateo has appearances in the tournament. Jepsen, a 2008 graduate, played in 10 CCS games over her four years with the Tigers, winning a title in 2007 and appearing in the 2006 championship game.

The Bearcats, as a program, are making just their fourth-ever appearance in the postseason tournament.

The task is tall for the Bearcats to get to their first-ever CCS softball championship game. Despite being the No. 15 seed and having a down year by its standards, San Benito (16-13) is CCS royalty, having won 10 CCS titles in a row from 2006 to 2016. The Haybalers have compiled an overall CCS tournament record of 44-12.

San Benito advanced to the semifinals by beating No. 2 Santa Clara 2-1 in the first round before shutting out Christopher-Gilroy 8-0 in the quarterfinals this past Saturday.

San Mateo got past No. 6 Santa Teresa 5-2 in the opener before rallying for a 9-8 win over No. 14 Presentation in the quarterfinals.