AKRON — Twice before, Ty McKinney and Ryan Ashby were on the brink of a victory in doubles competitions, including the April Mac’s Cabana Sunday Sweeper Series event at Spins Bowl Akron.
“You know, it’s always fun to be knocking on the door,” McKinney said. “But I told Ryan, this runner-up thing kind of sucks.”
Sunday afternoon during the May Sweeper Series event Sunday the pair delivered when they needed it most — in the semifinals and finals.
During a day when strikes were necessary and spares dropped you back in the field, McKinney and Ashby delivered plenty of the former late in the title match to stop top-seeded Vinny Bellar and Frank Testa 435-433.
This came after McKinney threw four strikes in a row in the ninth and 10th frames to give the second-seeded pair a 465-455 win over red-got No. 4 seed Ryan Liederbach and Dan Marriot.
“Showing up in the 10th frame is what you have to do when you’re in matches like this,” said McKinney, a 41-year-old Mansfield right-hander. “I told Ryan, maybe the third time’s the charm.”
The scoring pace was torrid on the high side of Spins Bowl Akron (lanes 43 through 64), a change from the side the tourney usually uses.
“Typically, the leagues that bowl on this side, the scoring pace is usually higher,” Testa said. “In the traveling league (Northeast Ohio Travel League), we don’t bowl on this side very often, but there are a lot of honor scores when we do.”
Speaking of honor scores, Liederbach led the way in that category, recording a pair of 300s during the four-game qualifier and shooting 820 for his first three games. In fact, his 300 in Game 4 enabled him and Marriot to reach the stepladder finals by just one pin over Tyler Meredith and D.J. Assaf (1,932-1,931).
Testa, a 40-year-old Massillon right-hander, also had 803 for his first three games, including a 299. In all, there were four 300 games — including a second one in Game 4 by Ashby — and eight 700 series shot during the first three games.
Liederbach, a 25-year-old Northfield two-handed lefty who finished with a four-game 1,120 total, and Marriot, a 23-year-old Cleveland right-hander, opened the stepladder with a 506-481 win over Jefferson’s Casey Cohagan and Mentor’s Kevin Oravecz.
Cohagan left a pocket 7-10 split in the ninth that opened the door and neither he nor Oravecz were able to strike in the 10th, both leaving 10-pins on their first shots. Marriot struck out in the 10th, and Liederbach struck on his first ball after a strike in the ninth to seal the win.
But the late magic was not there for Liederbach and Marriot, who both bowled during Saturday’s PBA regional in Lorain, during the semifinal against McKinney and Ashby.
Marriot failed to convert a 2-6-8 spare in the ninth and Liederbach left back-to-back 2-4-6-7 and 4-7-8-10 splits in the ninth and 10th. After McKinney had his strike string, Ashby struck on his first shot and covered a 10-pin spare to close out the 10th and earn the win.
Marriot finished with 212 and Liederbach, after eight straight strikes to open the match, had 243.
During that match, McKinney had strikes on every shot except for leaving 9-pins in the sixth and eighth frames en route to 259 to go with Ashby’s 206.
“I didn’t see that first one happening,” said McKinney, who went with a Storm Phaze 4 during his run. “The second one, I kind of saw that coming. I just made the right ball choice. I really liked the shape, so I set let’s try it and you saw what happened.”
In the title match, McKinney struck on four of his first five shots while Bellar started with four strikes. Testa left a 2-10 split in the third frame and Ashby had a pocket 7-10 split in the second.
The big problem came in the fifth frame for Ashby, a 27-year-old Madison right-hander. After a double, he fouled on his first ball and got only six on his second, losing valuable pin count.
“My timing obviously is not good right now. It’s just poor on the release,” Ashby said. “The approaches also were very slick, and that doesn’t help my timing because I like to stick. But I kind of forgot about it.”
Indeed he did, running off five straight strikes into the 10th frame while McKinney had four straight strikes through the ninth and 10th frames.
Meanwhile, Bellar ran into trouble on the right lane, leaving a 3-10 split in the sixth (he coverted it) and a 3-6-7-10 split in the eighth along with an 8-pin on his first shot in the 10th frame.
“I caught a little over-under. If I threw it too far right, it jumped, and if I got it too far in, it just never hooked,” said Bellar, a 26-year-old Aurora right-hander who finished with 210. “I switched balls to be more aggressive and read the lane earlier, but I fought it.”
Testa, who left a 3-6 spare in the seventh after three strikes and a 6-pin on his second ball in the 10th after three more strikes, had the same problem.
“On the 2-10, I just missed it off my hand and got it in a little,” said Testa, who had 223 “When they start getting cliffed like this, you definitely don’t want to miss it off your hand.”
Ashby got his first strike in the 10th to continue his string after McKinney’s run.
“I felt like I had to double because Frank is top notch and you feel like you have to go shot-for-shot with someone like that,” said Ashby, who threw a Brunswick Knock Out Black Blue. “You have to get every pin you can”
Instead, Ashby left a 2-4 spare after his strike, but covered it for the two-pin win.
For Ashby, this win was the end of a long road.
“It’s been a couple of years since I’ve won anything,” said Ashby, who also finished second in a doubles event with his father, Paul, earlier this season. “It just feels good to win, period.”
NOTEBOOK: The event drew 18 teams, with the cut being 1,932 for four games. … Tournament director Frank Dallas said another sweeper is planned for June, with a time and date to be announced. … The other 300 game came from left-harder Colton Riddle. … Testa and Bellar teamed for the high doubles game of the day with 588 in Game 3. Testa had 299 and Bellar added 289. Ashby and McKinney also had 569 in Game 4, with the latter adding 269 to Ashby’s 300. … There were 12 500 doubles games rolled by teams. … Testa and Bellar were the high qualifiers with 2,023 total pinfall as Testa had 1,026. Other 1,000 series, in addition to Liederbach and Testa, went to McKinney (1,009) and Cohagan (1,017). … Testa has won two of the series events this season with Dean Vargo and his wife, Mandi. He also won a doubles event at Clutch Lanes with Dean Billings, beating the Ashbys in the title match. … First place paid $748, with second place earning $300.