PERRY TWP. — The Perry Township duo of J.D. Jones and Scott Vandegrift have known success during the College Bowl Tournaments doubles events in the past.
The pair now have a pair of wins, two seconds, a third and a fourth during their time together.
As for their opponents — Joe Stauffer and Alex McCourry — during Saturday’s title match of the latest doubles event at AMF Hall of Fame Lanes — well, let’s just call it a last-minute tandem.
“I had two people back out on me,” said McCourry, a 26-year-old Canton Township left-hander. “One hurt his back and another just said he had something else to do. So I was scraping around Eastbury (Friday night) trying to find someone and asked Joe.”
In fact, the two teams were joking around during Friday’s league play at Eastbury about switching partners. But both worked out in the end.
Jones and Vandegrift continued their tandem success with a 513-486 win over Stauffer and McCourry in a match that had just three open frames among the four competitors.
“We made good ball changes when we had to. When the lanes got weird, we adjusted and played off each other. It all worked out,” said Jones, a 27-year-old right-hander.
Jones and Vandegrift, a 34-year-old righty, were never out of the top four during the four-game qualifier, sitting second after Game 2 and earning the No. 1 seed after Game 4 with 1,971 total pinfall.
“We didn’t really run into any problems until we got down to the high end,” Vandegrift said. “Usually we start out with 460 or 480 and build from there. This time we started with 500 (519 to be exact).”
“It made it a lot easier,” Jones added.
During the semifinal round against No. 4 seed Mike Parker and Nathan Sommers, Jones ran off six in a row at one point and Vandegrift added a key double in the 10th frame to give the pair a 433-427 win.
McCourry and Stauffer, the No. 2 seed, had an easier time against third-seeded Josh Truman and John Price, gaining a 454-366 win.
Stauffer and McCourry were 14th after Game 1, jumped to sixth after Game 2 with a 508 and finally to second after Game 4, 66 pins behind Vandegrift and Jones.
“We just have good chemistry and bowl well together,” said Stauffer, a 48-year-old Canton Township right-hander who teamed with McCourry once before to win a doubles event at Strike Zone several years ago.
In the title match, only Vandegrift (with a 10-pin spare) failed to strike through the first three frames,
But McCourry then left 2-4-pin spares in both the fourth and sixth frames and a 3-10 split that he covered in the fifth. Stauffer then had his only open frame, a 4-7-10 split, in the fifth.
“I made a ball change going into match play. I was throwing the (Columbia) Eruption, but it was getting high and I thought I was throwing it subpar,” McCourry said. “So I went to the (Brunswick) Melee Jab Midnight Blue and I liked the way it was rolling practice.”
Jones ran off five strikes in a row to start, left a 10-pin and missed the spare in the sixth frame, but then struck out for 267. Vandegrift left an 8-10 split in the sixth — “I think I pitched it out a little too much,” he said later — but then struck out for 246.
Stauffer finished with 232, also leaving a 9-pin on his second ball in the 10th frame while covering a 2-7 split in the eighth, while McCourry finished with six strikes in a row for 254.
“We played pretty consistent. We started on that pair and it was really nice,” Jones said. “Honestly, I only had to move a couple of boards left from where I started in that match.”
Vandegrift made ball changes from the Motiv Trident Odyssey to the Iron Forge.
“I really did see many changes until we hit the high end, But I carried a lot, except for a couple of 8-10 splits on Lane 5,” Vandegrift added.
As is usually the case, it came down to carry for the pair.
“We carried so many shots,” Jones said. “It we wouldn’t have been carrying, we easily could have missed the cut completely,”
But it all came together again for the Perry Township duo in a College Bowl Tournament event.
NOTEBOOK: The tournament drew a field of 24 doubles teams. … It took 1,903 total pinfall to make the cut to the top four for match play, Truman and Price, who claimed the last College Bowl Tournaments regular doubles at Hall of Fame in January, earned the No. 3 seed due to the higher team game. Truman also won the 50-50 College Bowl doubles title in February with Keith Muskiewicz. … Sommers, a 32-year-old Greentown right-hander, and North Canton left-hander Parker, the oldest man in the field at 69, jumped into the top four after rolling 460 during their final game. … The cut to cash among the top eight was 1,870. The duo of T.J. Owens and Andy Lillo missed match play by just seven pins. … Seven Walsh University men’s team members participated in the event with one, right-hander J.T. Jackson, shooting one of the four 300 games. The others were by Brian Ball, Price and Kevin Schott. … Ball and Rob Sample, who sat first after Games 2 and 3, struggled on the end pair in Game 4 and fell to sixth. … College Bowl Tournaments’ final event, its end-of-the-year tournament, is set for 10 a.m. May 14 at Park Centre Lanes. Entry fee is $60 and it is open only to players who participated in at least four of the group’s events this season.
COLLEGE BOWL TOURNAMENTS DOUBLES
(At AMF Hall of Fame Lanes)
CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND
(Losing teams win $250)
Semifinals: Alex McCourry-Joe Stauffer d. John Price-Josh Truman 454-366; Scott Vandegrift-J.D. Jones d. Nate Sommers-Mike Parker 433-427.
Championship: Vandegrift-Jones d. McCourry-Stauffer 513-486. Vandegrift-Jones win $800; McCourry-Stauffer win $500.
Other cashers
(With qualifying pinfall; each win $125)
5, T.J. Owens-Andy Lillo 1,896; 6, Rob Sample-Brian Ball 1,883; 7, Tony Carson-Ray Cook 1,875; 8, Chase Barstow-Jordan Norris 1,870.