LEXINGTON — Cassidy Schaub had a simple game plan coming into Lex Lanes on Saturday.
“For me, it was pretty much not to get buried early,” the 40-year-old Greenwich two-handed left-hander said. “You know people are going to strike all day long.
“Then, it was just grind your way through the rest.”
It was the Richland County parole officer who was doing all the striking early during the Eliminator Lex Lanes Singles House Shot Event, shooting 300 in Game 2 of the four-game qualifying round and finishing with 839 for his first three.
After finishing as the No. 1 seed for the elimination match play, Schaub survived four elimination rounds, defeating Heath right-hander Korbin M. Wilson 227-204 to claim the $1,000 first-place check.
“It’s always good to win,” said Schaub, who also captured the Akron Open in August using the same Brunswick Attitude Control ball. “I wish my kid was here to see this one, but he had bowling this morning so that’s all right.”
When Schaub won the Akron Open at Station 300 Akron, it got a monkey off of his back. He was making his fourth straight stepladder finals appearance in that event before finally earning his first win, 194-193 over left-hander Kyle Mayberry.
But this was a different format. After the four qualifying games, the cut was made to the top 22 in the field of 110 players. The top eight qualifiers (Schaub among them as the top seed) sat out the first round while the remaining 14 had to bowl one game to determine the top eight who would move on.
After that round was completed, the top eight qualifiers joined in with those survivors and also bowled one game, with the top eight of 16 moving on. Subsequent rounds went from eight to four then the final two — all single-game elimination.
SCHAUB’S DAY
Schaub trailed only once in qualifying, shooting 280 in Game 1 to trail Newt McClellan (287) by seven pins. He followed that with 300 and 259.
“My highest 800 is 864, but I have no idea how many 800s I have … probably 100 I guess,” said Schaub, who estimated he has around 150 300 games. “Basically, I’m bowling two nights a week and that’s it.
“I haven’t bowled a tournament in a while. I’ve been kind of spending time with my kids and deer hunting. Getting them outside. Honestly, I’ll be out here as much as I can. Deer season is slowing down so I’ll be OK more on the weekends.”
After his first-round bye, Schaub shot 235, 258 and 279 over his next three elimination rounds. The 227 in the title match was his low game of the day.
During the 279, he left a 4-6-10 split in the first frame and then struck out to lead that round of four.
“It was just a terrible shot. I just threw it out the window and went through the face,” Schaub said. “Then I just stepped back up and threw it better.”
WILSON’S RUN TO FINALS
It was far from that easy for Wilson, a 21-year-old with an almost straight up and down high backswing. He bowls just six league games a week in only his second year of adult play after graduating from Heath High School.
“I threw the ball really well all day, but I lost it a little in transition in Games 3 and 4,” said Wilson, who works as a mechanic at Park Lanes and part-time at Valvoline Instant Oil Change. “But I was able to hang on to the cut spot.”
After sitting sixth after two qualifying games with 536, Wilson shot just 209 and 215 his final two to sit 14th overall heading into elimination-round play. He then made a ball change and moved right with his Track Sensor.
Asked about his extremely high backswing, Wilson said he developed it over sixth and seventh grade and “it kept getting bigger and bigger.”
“It got to be straight up and down, and I practiced to not get it in front of me,” Wilson said. “It actually becomes a timing issue if I lower it. I tried doing that multiple times, but when you have to work on that and timing, it gets kind of tricky.”
During match play, Wilson had games of 244, 226, 245 and 231 to reach the title match. The final game was the key as Wilson needed a double in the 10th frame in the Round of Four to go with a strike in the ninth frame to edge Brandon Novak by just five pins after the latter left a 10-pin on his first ball in the 10th frame. It came after Wilson opened in the seventh, missing a 2-6-8 spare.
TITLE MATCH
In the title match, Schaub left a 6-pin spare in the first frame, but then ran off four strikes in a row to build the lead. Wilson was able to strike on just two of his first five shots.
“I honestly ran out of steam … bowling nine games is tough. I’m used to bowling like three or four games, so doing more than that is rare,” said Wilson, who also cashed in the Akron Open. “Akron was the longest format I’ve bowled in with six games.
“I just got tired. I shorted a few shots, lofted a few and got really lucky on a couple of them. That 204 should have been around a 170 or 180. It seemed like that pair had a little bit more volume carry down. When I moved right, it seemed like it was over-under, so I moved back to the left and it played pretty close to the first round.”
Wilson doubled in the sixth and seventh frames, but left a 10-pin in the eighth that halted his run. He didn’t have an open frame.
After his early four-strike string, Schaub had just two more strikes the rest of the way.
“I caught a misread when I 6-pinned in the first frame and it forced me to move in,” Schaub said. “I just couldn’t get the ball to go through the pins the right way. I was lucky to string those four strikes and hang on from there.”
Schaub had switched to the Attitude Control in Akron, but went with it all day at Lex Lanes.
“It’s honestly more controllable and it reads the mid-lanes a little bit more,” Schaub said. “It has a little bigger core than the (Hammer) Purple. It allows me to control it more front to back than side to side.”
Schaub was asked if his game has changed as he moves into his 40s.
“Three years ago, I dropped a drill press on my fingers and split them apart. The only thing that has changed is my pitches and taping my ring finger,” Schaub said. “I changed my set up a little bit just to take the pressure off the ring finger.”
But the two-hander still reaches around 18 mph with his delivery. And he was able to grind it out at the end for another win.
NOTEBOOK: Seven players finished with 1,003 or higher for the four-game qualifier in the 110-player field, with Jacob Balser (825) and Steven Granger (813) also shooting 800 along with Schaub for the first three. The tourney was on the Lex Lanes house oil pattern. … It took a mark of 937 to make the cut for the opening elimination round, with Ryan Liederbach earning the final bye spot with 989. Tyler Back earned that final elimination round spot by just one pin over Zeke Bayt and Joe Justinger and two pins over Andre Gonzales and TaSean Peters by shooting 278 his final game. … The final round of 16 elimination round had 11 right-handers and five-lefties, including five total two-handers. … Canton right-hander Branden Ball was Stark County’s top finisher, reaching the round of eight before falling short. … Four players had 300 games including Schaub, Casey Cohagan, Simon Mote and Jay Sheriff, who had his during the opening elimination round. … Novak, who fell in the round of four, shot a career-high 889 during the Billiter Trios tournament at Rollhouse Fairfield recently on games of 300, 299 and 290. … Our thanks again to tournament promoter Jody Boyd, tournament director Dawn Altimore-Eckenrode and Makenna Boyd for their assistance in getting information for this event. … Boyd’s next event is the Two-Shot HP Lanes Singles Marathon, see for 10 a.m. Dec. 16 at HP Lanes in Columbus. For more information, go to https://www.facebook.com/events/310169941563464/
ELIMINATOR LEX LANES SINGLES HOUSE SHOT EVENT
(Saturday at Lex Lanes, Lexington)
ELIMINATOR ROUND 1
(Top eight advance; others each receive $140)
Jay Sheriff 300, Jean Perez 258, Brandon Novak 256, Tom Fleming 247, Korbin M. Wilson 244, Trent Marner 237, Branden Ball 236, Michael Williams 226, Tyler Back 213, Michael Mossbarger 212, Mike Lloyd 203, David Hipp 192, Brian Harris 162.
ELIMINATOR ROUND 2
(Top eight advance; others receive $200 each)
Ryan Liederbach 267, Matt Jacob 266, Jean Perez 243, Cassidy Schaub 235, Tom Fleming 227, Branden Ball 227, Korbin M. Wilson 226, Brandon Novak 226, Jay Sheriff 221, Michael Williams 218, Trent Marner 216, AJ Rice 207, Simon Mote 207, Zach Grove 207, Steven Granger 206, Jacob Balser 175.
ELIMINATOR ROUND 3
(Top four advance; others receive $325 each)
Cassidy Schaub 258, Ryan Liederbach 256, Korbin M. Wilson 245, Brandon Novak 231, Jean Perez 215, Matt Jakob 207, Branden Ball 204, Tom Fleming 192
ELIMINATOR ROUND 4
(Top two advance; others receive $500 each)
Cassidy Schaub 279, Korbin M. Wilson 231, Brandon Novak 226, Ryan Liederbach 185.
ELIMINATION ROUND 5
(Winner receives $1,000; runner-up receives $650)
Cassidy Schaub 227, Korbin M. Wilson 204.
