NORTH CANTON — Michael Tryniski and Michael Haggitt consider themselves to be faster players.
“I take my time on the approach, but I like to bowl frame after frame,” said Haggitt, a 52-year-old left-hander who leads the Professional Bowlers Association Central Region senior points list.
But the pair was thrown a curve ball Saturday morning during the qualifying round for the PBA50-PBA5 Doubles-Park Centre Lanes Central Open at Park Centre Lanes.
What had been a 24-team field, with two teams on each pair of lanes, was reduced to 23 due to a late withdrawal. Tryniski and Haggitt had to bowl the eight games by themselves.
“We were able to keep pace pretty well,” Haggitt said.
Setting their own pace, bowling match-play style, resulted in the pair earning the final qualifying spot for today’s match-play finals with 3,465 total pinfall, 33 pins ahead of Charlie Tapp and Larry Verble.
“I don’t think my struggles had anything to do with the pace of play,” said Tryniski, a 62-year-old Fulton, N.Y., right-hander. “Mike bowled great all day. I was like 30 over (1,637 total pinfall) and struggled. We made it because of him.”
While Tryniski had just one game over 225, Haggitt finished with 1,828, an average of 228.50. That came after the lefty started with 621 for his first three games.
“There’s a difference between reactive and urethane, and it took me three games to discover what I was doing wrong,” Haggitt said. “I shot 620 for the first three and I felt I bowled better than that. I’m watching Parker (Bohn) kill the place.
“So I thought about it and made a change. I just wasn’t coming up the back of the ball enough.”
Tryniski admitted he was just along for the ride.
“I just couldn’t find a way to knock them over on the right lanes. I couldn’t get lined up,” Tryniski said. “The fact is, he could have had a lot more. He didn’t strike a lot the last couple of games or he could have been 300 or 400 over.”
In fact, Haggitt averaged 241.4 over his last five games as the team, which was on the cut line most of the day, earned the final spot.
“We’re only 21 pins out of fifth, so you never know in match play,” Haggitt said. “You just show up and you have to strike to catch up.”
NOTEBOOK
PRO-AM SUCCESS. Friday’s Fred Smith-Dick Behra Memorial Pro-Am drew 62 entries. The event will be presenting a $500 memorial scholarship to a high school bowler in the spring, with the scholarship being administered through the Stark County High School Bowling Conference. Guidelines to apply for the scholarship will be announced later, according to pro-am director Charles Spencer.
SUNDAY MATCH PLAY: The Sunday match-play format includes 50 bonus pins for teams in addition to pinfall. Senior players (PBA50) will bowl each other for 10 pins, super seniors (PBA60) players bowl each other for 10 pins and team wins receive 30 bonus pins for a total of 50 available bonus pins per match.
AREA PARTICIPANTS: Former Stark County resident Tim Elsass, now of Ellington, Conn., bowled with Hartville’s Mark Herdlck and the pair finished 19th overall with 3,246. … Health issues forced the individual withdrawal of Pete Weber, whose wife was injured in a fall at home. Canton’s Tony Johnson, who was supposed to bowl with Weber, instead bowled with Ashtabula’s Dave Johnson, who also lost his partner due to illness. The two Johnsons finished 14th overall with 3,349 as Tony averaged 220.38 for eight games. … North Canton’s Mike Parker and Ravenna’s Thom Butcher finished 23rd with 2,723. … Bedford’s Chris Osborne and Streetsboro’s John Kertis finished 10th with 3,412, missing the cut by 53 pins.
NOTEBOOK: The field was at 23 teams after Rick Zakrajsek and Robert Michalojko withdrew Saturday morning after the latter’s wife had an health issue. … Charlie Tapp, a three-time PBA winner, was the oldest player in the field at 71. … High game of the event was 279, shared by Jeff Zaffino, Parker Bohn III and Kertis. … Admission is free for Sunday’s match-play finals, which begin at 9 a.m.
See complete results here: