By BILL SNIER
CANTON — J.D. Jones admittedly had been going through a rough week, both on and off the lanes.
“It was just a rough week … I had a bunch of stuff going on at work and with bowling,” the 29-year-old Massillon right-hander said.
And he texted Josh Haddad, who was scheduled to be his partner during Saturday’s College Bowl Tournaments doubles at AMF Hall of Fame Lanes, as such.
“I texted him back and told him I had a good feeling about (Saturday),” said Haddad, a 39-year-old Perry Township right-hander who was teaming up with Jones for the first time in doubles.
“I texted let’s just go and give it our best shot. I think it’s going to be good.”
Third-seeded following qualifying, Jones and Haddad earned Saturday’s victory with a 473-432 win over senior players Bobby Moyers and Mark Herdlick.
Jones got an emotional boost to start his day after his rough week.
“When I got up, I was looking at my closet of shirts to determine what I was going to wear,” Jones said. “My grandpa (Ron Bologna) passed away last year and gave me a couple of his shirts. It was sticking out and I decided to wear one of them.
“I just felt like he was there telling me he was on my side today.”
Due to his job with TCC-Verizon Wireless, Haddad finds it difficult to bowl in Saturday events, particularly in doubles. This time, he was available.
“I was supposed to bowl with someone else, but they weren’t available,” said Jones who has won a doubles event in the series with Scott Vandegrift. “Me and Josh had not bowled together, so when he said he could do it, I was like ‘sweet.’ ”
After combining for 451 in Game 3 of the four-game qualifier, the pair had dropped to seventh in the standings after not being out of the top five during the first two games. But with Jones shooting 269 in Game 4 and Haddad adding 213, the pair jumped four spots the final game.
“That was kind of how the day went,” Haddad said. “We just complement each other so well and that’s what it takes to win in doubles.
“When I couldn’t carry, he carried, and when he couldn’t, I carried.”
Going into that final qualifying game, the pair were just 10 pins apart over the first three games, with Jones at 694 and Haddad at 684. The Game 4 trend continued into match play.
ROLLING INTO FINALS
In their semifinal match against No. 2 seeded Frank Kaczynski, a 51-year-old Plain Township left-hander who had captured the last College Bowl Tournaments singles event in December, and 56-year-old Jackson Township right-hander Ron Sattler, it was Haddad who had the hot hand.
Haddad had a run of five strikes from frames three through seven en route to 248 while Jones shot just 189 for 437. But Kaczinski and Sattler combined for nine open frames, including four splits, and shot just 338, with seven of the opens coming in the first six frames.
“(Haddad) was striking and they weren’t and they were struggling,” Jones said. “So I was trying a couple of different things, trying not to give the pocket away. I kind of got a bit lazy, and that was my fault.”
MOYERS, HERDLICK, TEAM UP
Moyers, a 64-year-old Green right-hander who just retired Dec. 31, and Herdlick, a 57-year-old Hartville right-hander and drive-through owner, also were teaming up for the first time in doubles competition.
“He subs with me in the (Summit County) senior traveling league on Wednesday and he sent me a text,” Moyers said.
“I wanted to bowl and I needed a partner,” Herdlick added. “So I reached out to him. The worst he could tell me was no. Maybe we have a new doubles team here.”
After holding fourth after two qualifying games, the pair surged into first after combining for 481 in Game 3, with Moyers shooting 267.
“We really had no idea where we stood,” Herdlick said, “until we heard we were leading heading into the last game.”
But in that last game, Moyers shot just 202 and Herdlick had 188 for 390. Meanwhile, the team of John Price and Seth Wagner had 436, but remained in fifth — just one pin behind Moyers and Herdlick, who made the cut to the four-team match play round.
“I had a solid 10, 9-pin, 9-pin and another solid-10 in the middle of strikes so I easily could have turned that into a bigger game,” Moyers said. “Mark struck out in the 10th.”
“I guess I made that 188 look good,” said Herdlick, as the pair didn’t know they had made the final round by one pin until told much later by a writer.
“We knew that if we got to the show, we had an opportunity,” Moyers said.
The pair then caught fire in the semifinal match against top-seeded Rick Shawver, a 56-year-old Amherst right-hander, and Dylan Wilson, a 27-year-old Vermillion righty. Moyers failed to strike just once in the sixth frame en route to 279 while Herdlick was able to string five strikes at one point for 253 and the pair’s high game for the day of 532 while Shawver and Wilson had just 417.
TITLE MATCH
It was Jones and Haddad who got off to the quick start in the title match, with each rolling the first three strikes. Little did the latter know the strike in the first frame would be his last on the right lane during the match.
While Herdlick started with a double, Moyers failed to covert a 10-pin spare in the first and didn’t find a consistent strike line until the fifth frame after a single strike in the second followed by two one-pin spares.
“That pair was a little tighter than the other. I was trying to look down the lane and get the ball out,” Moyers said. “It was kind of like the pair we started on. I was trying to get the ball to 11 or 12 (board) at the arrows, get it to the right a little into the hook area and stay under it.”
But after his strike in the first frame, Herdlick also ran into problems on the right lane, leaving a 6-7 split in the third, two 10-pin spares and a 4-pin spare the rest of the way.
“I tried to tweak the ball a bit going inside or outside to get a little more finish, and I went from ringing 10-pin to a 4-pin,” said Herdlick, who moved just one board with his feet all day. “It looked good, it felt good, but I just couldn’t carry, and it was that way pretty well all day.”
Jones was able to adjust after leaving 2-pin spares in both the fourth and sixth frames on that same right lane.
“I slowed down a little bit and got the ball right a little quicker,” Jones said. “When I tried to get it down the lane a little quicker on the second 2-pin, it went long. So I just kept it tighter and stayed slower, allowing it to read. Going lighter was definitely better.”
Haddad didn’t want to make much of an adjustment.
“How do you move after you have shot after shot not missing the pocket?” Haddad asked. “I think I missed the pocket twice. I didn’t want to make any dramatic changes because I can make 10-pins.
“Why try something when you could leave a split or something worse?”
Haddad did leave an 8-10 split in the sixth frame, but went 4-for-4 on 10-pin spares en route to 215. Jones, after his second 2-pin spare in the sixth frame, ran off five strikes, including a key light carrying wall shot on his first ball in the 10th frame, for 258.
Moyers had a run of three strikes in the middle frames and had the final four to finish for 227. Herdlick had a pair of doubles, the other coming in the 10th frame, for 205. Both had one open frame while Jones stayed clean and Haddad had the one split.
“It just came down to a matter of carry … just look at how many 10-pins Josh left,” Moyers said.
“There was a little too much over-under for me … it was kind of up and down from where I was,” Herdlick said. “Bobby had a great shot all day .. . it was just whether he carried or not.”
This was Haddad’s first doubles win in the series — in fact, he has not made the cut to match play with previous partners.
“This just feels great,” Haddad said. “It was a long day, but a great day.”
And, as Jones added, grandpa was watching to provide help.
NOTEBOOK: The event drew 24 doubles teams on the house oil pattern. … Shawver and Wilson led the field with 1,964 total pinfall, finishing 50 pins ahead of Kaczynski and Sattler (1,914) … Herdlick and Moyers earned the final cut spot with 1,853 to 1,852 for Price and Wagner. Alan Hoover and Trent Hoover earned the final cash spot with 1,827, also just one pin ahead of John Shreve Sr. and Tyler Drehs (1,826) in one of the tightest fields in the series’ history. … Wilson turned in the high individual series with 1,010, followed by Kaczynski with 1,002. … Tony Confalone had the high game with 290 in Game 1, with 279s during qualifying coming from Alan Hoover, Drehs and Rob Sample. … The 74-year-old left-handed Shreve and Drehs turned in the high game of qualifying with 536 en route to taking the lead after Game 2. … The next College Bowl Tournaments event is a junior-senior doubles, with at least one player having to be age 50-or-older. Entry fee is $130 for the event at 10 a.m. Feb. 10 at Eastbury Bowling Center in Canton. For information, go to College Bowl Tournaments page on Facebook or contact Jeff DiMarzio.
COLLEGE BOWL TOURNAMENTS DOUBLES
(Saturday, at AMF Hall of Fame Lanes, Canton)
Match-play rounds
Semifinals
(Losing teams receive $240)
No. 3 Josh Haddad (248)-J.D. Jones (189) d. No. 2 Frank Kaczynski (191)-Ron Sattler (147) 437-338; No. 4 Bobby Moyers (279)-Mark Herdlick (253) d. No. 1 Rick Shawver (227)-Dylan Wilson (190) 532-417.
Championship
(Winning team receives $940; losers receive $525)
Haddad (215)-Jones (258) d. Moyers (227)-Herdlick (205) 473-432.
Other cashers
(With four-game qualifying pinfalls; each team receives $120)
5, Seth Wagner-John Price 1,852; 6, Tony Wagner-Sean Rich 1,830; 7, Trent Hoover-Alan Hoover 1,827.
