WOOSTER — Confidence and chemistry, mixed in with a couple of early ball changes and keeping it all light-hearted.
All of these elements produced a winning night for the Brunswick trio of Tim Voytko, Melissa Voytko and Eric Bator during Wednesday’s 11th annual Thanksgiving Eve Baker Trios at Triway Lanes.
The top-seeded trio, who led the 12-game Baker System qualifying round with 2,735 total pinfall, saved their best for last during the stepladder finals.
Facing the fourth-seeded team of Karlie Way, Donnie Evans and Nick Patterson, the Voytko trio struck on 10 of their 12 shots for a 276-228 win in the title match. It was the highest game of the tournament.
And it came a year after the team didn’t make the cut in the same event.
“We just didn’t have any luck with carry last year,” said Tim Voytko, a 42-year-old right-hander who throws without his thumb in the ball. “We kind of started the same way this year, but then we made the proper ball changes and moves.”
Melissa Voytko, who won this event two years ago with partners Ryan Ashby and Casey Cohagan, said the atmosphere for the team was different this season.
“I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves last year to do well,” Melissa said. “This year, we wanted to make it a fun night. Our family was in to watch so that was pretty cool. It was all pretty light-hearted.”
But Melissa, a 34-year-old left-hander, admitted her stress level rose during the first three games when the team started 197-199-216.
“But they kept my head on straight and had faith in me,” Melissa said. “The ball change was huge for me. I’ve been using the One Remix and having great success with it, so I started with it here. But it was burning up early and leaving a lot of corners.
“I tried to go to the original Zen, but it was rolling too clean and too sharp on the back ends. I went to the Zen Master and it was golden the rest of the night.”
Tim Voytko also made a change, going from the Storm Phaze 5 to the Roto Grip RST X2.
“It hooks a lot more, so I just got left. But it turned the corners better than anything else I had,” Tim said.
Bator stayed with the same ball all night.
“I made some minor moves from lane to lane because some were tighter than others,” said Bator, a 25-year-old right-hander. “We just paid attention to who was in front of us and kept throwing it well. Under the worse-case scenario, we were getting nine and making our spares. Just keeping it in play.”
After standing 12th in the 15-team field after two games, the Voytko trio rose to sixth after four games and into the lead after eight. They averaged 235.8 over their last seven games, with only a 194 in Game 10 hurting that number.
“I was really surprised when we moved to the lead after eight,” Tim said. “I wasn’t when we led at the end.”
They stormed to the No. 1 seed by 101 pins over the trio of Ted Kays Jr., Chantel Meshew and Gary Brobson, who jumped from fifth to second after shooting 226 and 246 the final two qualifying games.
OTHER MATCHES
The Way-Patterson trio, leaders after the first four qualifying games, tied the team of Rocky Kovach, Tim Skinner and Selena Good for the No. 4 qualifying spot. But the latter team received the No. 3 seed by virtue of having the higher game (266).
The Way team started the quarterfinal match with four strikes and had seven of the first eight en route to a 245-211 win.
Their striking ways continued against the Meshew trio in the semifinals, again striking on their first three shots before a 6-7-10 split in the fifth frame.
But while the Meshew team could strike on just two of their first five shots, including a missed 7-pin spare in the third frame, the Way trio went back on a run after the split, striking on six straight shots for a 254-226 win to reach the title match.
ROLLING EARLY IN FINAL
In the title match, the Voytko trio decided to put Melissa as the anchor. It was a solid choice as well as selecting the right lane,
“We didn’t want to put them back on the lane they had just come off of,” Tim said. “We knew what they had in the first game on that lane, but another game was on it by then.”
The Way team struck on just four of their first seven shots, including a 4-6-7-10 split in the fourth frame. But the Voytko trio just kept striking.
Until Tim left a 1-2-4 spare in the fifth frame, which he covered.
Their only other miss was Melissa leaving a single pin on her final shot in the 10th frame.
“I was really surprised they wanted me to finish it out. To put the female there showed a lot of confidence in me,” Melissa said. “It really meant a lot that they did that.”
The trio wanted to light-heartedly thank, among others, Titos, Coors Light, Twisted Tea and Advil liquid gels for their success. They also didn’t know about the $100 bonus for shooting a $300 until the end.
“I would have thrown it better in the fifth if I’d known that,” Tim joked.
That was never a problem after Game 3 on the night.
NOTEBOOK: The event had one no-show team so there was 16 overall … Teams had to switch lineups every game with Bowler 1 starting and anchoring Games 1-4-7-10, Bowler 2 doing the same in Game 2-5-8-11 and Bowler 3 in Games 3-6-9-10. … In the Baker System format, two bowlers rolled three frames and one bowler rolled four. … High game during qualifying was 268 by both the McVicker-Simon trio and the Moore trio. … The tourney also had Calcutta bidding prior to the event. … The Way team was the lone trio not to have a left-hander among the final four.
THANKSGIVING EVE BAKER TRIOS
(At Triway Lanes, Wooster)
Match 1: Way-Evans-Patterson d. Kovach-Skinner-Good 245-211. Way trio wins $210.
Match 2: Way-Evans-Patterson d. Brobson, Kays-Meshew 254-226. Meshew trio wins $300.
Championship: Voytko-Voytko-Bator d. Way-Evans-Patterson 276-228. Voytko trio wins $690; Way trio wins $450.
