PERRY TWP. — Strange.
That was the only way to describe Thursday’s Hall of Fame Summer Series finale at AMF Hall of Fame Lanes.
Consider:
— The two remaining bowlers in the title match combined for 289.
— The bowler who was in last place after Game 1 of the four-game qualifier with a 109 reached the stepladder finals.
— The alternate, who got into the field after one of the original 20 competitors didn’t arrive on time, reached his first top five in the series.
— A bowler who shot 245 in Game 1 to take a 25-pin lead finished 10th.
— There were four 200 games in Games 1 and 3; just one each in Games 2 and 4 on the 2019 U.S. Open No. 1 pattern, the toughest scoring pattern used during the six-event series.
“That was just weird,” said Bobby Wenger, the 54-year-old Wooster right-hander who was the top seed entering the championship round. “Nothing really felt right in the final, and it showed.”
Dave Mramor Jr., who had a pair of third-place finishes in his three series appearances, ran the stepladder and topped Wenger 152-137 to win the finale and $750.
Mramor, the No. 5 seed with 721 (just six pins ahead of sixth-place Rob Weary), earned his first adult win on a sports shot oil pattern and his first overall since topping a house-shot sweeper at Clutch Lanes in 2019.
“This feels pretty good,” said the 25-year-old Uniontown right-hander, who began a new job at Fastenal in Massillon last week. “I made some mistakes, but the right moves when I had to.”
The two bowlers in the title match combined for eight open frames, with Mramor covering a 1-2-4-10 washout in the third frame, but missing a 10-pin spare in the ninth.
“There’s really not much to say. I just lost the right lane. It was just pushing down too far for me,” Mramor said. “I’ve been working on a something different when I go down-and-in with the ball, but I forgot to do that.
“When I keep it inside, I walk toward the target. But when I went outside, I didn’t always do that and we were working on ways to fix that. I threw a better shot in the ninth, but almost left a 7-10 split. It didn’t really matter because I missed the 10-pin.”
RUNNING THE LADDER
Mramor opened the stepladder by topping 21-year-old Plain Township right-hander Branden Ball 202-192 as Ball recovered from his opening 109 to earn the No. 4 seed. He averaged 204 over his last three games.
But in the stepladder match, Ball failed to convert two spares in the fifth and sixth frames while Mramor was able to recover from a pair of open frames early to run off four strikes in a row into the 10th for the win.
“I knew he had a good look the first match, so I had to find a way out of it,” said Mramor, who started with the Motiv Trident Odyssey but switched to the Motiv Venom Shock in the second frame.
“I knew I had to get ahead of it quick or I wouldn’t have won the first game.”
In Game 2, Mramor faced 52-year-old Perry Township left-hander Jim Fellows, who was the alternate added to field by the tournament director after Frank Testa failed to arrive by the start of the event.
Mramor stayed clean throughout the game, adding a double in the 10th frame (one on a Brooklyn strike) to stop Fellows 196-181. Fellows left a 1-3-6-7 washout in the first frame and chopped a 2-4-7 spare in the seventh to go with one double.
Mramor then faced 20-year-old Cuyahoga Falls two-handed lefty Bryce Oliver, who dominated the field in the fifth series event, during the semifinals.
Mramor missed a 6-10 sore in the fifth frame for his only open. It was entirely different for Oliver, who left three 3-7 splits, converting one — all on the right lane — en route to a 181-156 loss.
Then came Wenger, the Bekaert Corp. employed who earned the top seed by averaging 204.75 in qualifying — the lone bowler to average 200.
Again, the right lane was the problem as Wenger left 2-10 and 3-10 splits in the second and sixth frames, missing both, plus failing to convert a 10-pin spare in the fourth.
“I don’t know, maybe it was the hour and half waiting. I didn’t throw it like I did in qualifying, that’s for sure,” said Wenger, who returned to competitive bowling the last couple of years after missing time due to health issues, including a series of minor strokes.
“I’m lucky and thankful that I’m here. I have a different outlook on this now. This is something I like to do now where as before, it felt like it was a job.”
Mramor left 2-4-8-10 and 4-6-7-10 splits in the fifth and seventh frames, respectively, before his missed 10-pin in the ninth.
He finished his night using the Venom Shock.
“I made the big change in the sixth frame. I hadn’t thrown down-and-in all night,” Mramor said. “But I forgot to walk toward my target and that caused the ball to go high.”
But Wenger isn’t through competing against the youngsters.
“I can’t complain at all. I’ve got the Akron Open coming up at the end of the month … I’m trying to get back into it,” Wenger added.
“But I have no words to describe that (match).”
It was just strange.
NOTEBOOK: A field of 20 competed, with the top five cashing in the field. … Three-time series winner J.D. Jones finished seventh overall with 699, missing the cut by 22 pins. … Of the four bowlers who earned spots in the second-chance draw, Mramor’s father Dave Mramor Sr. was the top finisher, taking 12th with 680. … Adam Kutz had the high game of 245 in Game 1, but finished 10th overall after a 129 in Game 4. … Kara Thomas, the lone woman in the field, finished eighth, missing the cut by 26 pins. Thomas and Kutz will be getting married next weekend. … Tournament director T.J. Owens said the series will return next summer. “We want to make it bigger and better,” Owens said, adding he hopes to add sponsorships and may possibly change the days of events with the same format and different oil patterns.
HALL OF FAME SUMMER SERIES FINALE
Championship round
Match 1: Dave Mramor d. Branden Ball 202-192. Ball wins $158.
Match 2: Mramor d. Jim Fellows 196-181. Fellows wins $200.
Match 3: Mramor d. Bryce Oliver 191-156. Oliver wins $250.
Championship: Mramor d. Bobby Wenger 152-137. Mramor wins $750; Wenger wins $500.