By BILL SNIER
AKRON — Brian Scott Esterle carries a Puff-Ball in his bag. Using it is another matter.
“I really never use it,” the 52-year-old Sharon Center right-hander and Medina Highland High School bowling coach said. “If I use it on my thumb, I hang up in the ball.”
But Sunday at Spins Bowl-Akron, while dealing with humidity problems in the center that were affecting his grip on the ball, Esterle brought the drying item out to use strictly on his fingers.
The use of the Puff-Ball, plus a key ball change in the semifinal match, led to Esterle topping the monthly scratch singles sweeper with a 268-227 win over Euclid two-handed righty Kyle Kalinowski in the title match.
“I was battling the humidity in here and that was the main problem,” said Esterle, who shot the event’s lone 300 in Game 1 of the four-game qualifier. “When I went into the first match, I was battling the same thing with my hand.
“The final game, I started using the Puff-Ball on my fingers. That was the key because I was able to hold on to the ball and get some rotation on it.”
After his perfect opener, Esterle shot 200, 190 and 214 over his final three games to earn the No. 2 seed for the four-player stepladder finals, finishing 59 pins behind Kalinowski, who opened the night with 275 and 296 en route to 963.
“The lanes on the higher end hooked too much in the middle and I got away from the gutter,” said Esterle, who won the senior division of the Hangover Classic recently in Cleveland.
“I should have gone back to the gutter where it would hold better. Then, I went down to (lanes) three and four and they hooked everywhere. It took me about four frames to find it and then I was all right.”
MAKING RIGHT CHANGE
Esterle started with his Storm Idol Synergy during his semifinal match against No. 4 seed Jeff Alford. But after leaving three spares, including a 5-pin, on his first three shots, he decided to make a change.
“I went to the (Roto Grip) Clone because it gave me better back-end reaction,” Esterle said. “With the Idol Synergy, it was too clean and I had to hit a specific spot. If I got it a little wide, it didn’t react.
“With the Clone, I was able to get it around the corner.”
Alford, a 56-year-old Cuyahoga Falls right-hander who bowls in the Northeast Ohio Travel League, ran off four strikes at one point in the opening match against No. 4 seed Dave Mramor Jr. He later added a double while Mramor, a 26-year-old Uniontown right-hander, had just two strikes the whole match as Alford advanced with a 215-162 win.
But after two doubles around a 1-2-6-10 washout in the third frame, Alford was able to strike just once more after the fifth frame against Esterle.
Meanwhile, after the ball change, Esterle ran off four strikes before leaving a 6-10 spare in the ninth.But he left a 4-5 split on his first ball in the 10th frame, getting one pin.
“I went high with that shot in the ninth frame, so I made a two-board move on that first ball on the other lane in the 10th frame, came up short and left that little split,” Esterle said. “I thought I was done.”
Alford, with a strike up in the ninth, needed a double to advance. Instead, he left a 4-6-7-9 split to fall 210-183.
RUNNING THEM IN FINAL
Kalinowski, a 2023 Euclid High School graduate, has bowled in “seven or eight” tournaments in his first year as an adult, earning top honors in an event at AMF Brookgate and a third at Station 300 Akron before reaching the finals in this event.
But after using his Storm IQ Tour and Virtual Energy Blackout during qualifying, Kalinowski chose to go with his Storm Absolute in the finals.
“That ball goes down the lane longer, snaps later and is easier to control for me,” Kalinowski said.
After striking on his first ball with a messenger taking out the 7-6-10 off the wall and following that with another strike, Kalinowski left a 4-pin in the third frame and a 1-2-10 washout in the fifth, which he covered.
“In qualifying, the lanes broke down too quick and I just didn’t make the adjustments in time,” Kalinowski said. “I should have moved left against him, slowed my speed down and got around the ball more.”
Kalinowski, who works for United Parcel Service and for a landscape company, was rolling just short of 19 mph in the final match. “I should have been more around 17,” he added.
Esterle, with the use of his Puff-Ball, left a 4-pin on his first shot of the match. Then, he ran off the next seven strikes in a row before another 4-pin in the ninth frame ended his run.
“I played a similar line with the Clone in both matches. I was standing maybe 35 or 36 (board) the last game and looking at 16,” Esterle said. “The previous game, I started at 32 and was looking at 14 and then 33 and 15 and migrated from there.”
Kalinowski followed his washout cover with three strikes, but then left a 6-pin on another high hit in the ninth. Esterle followed his ninth frame spare with two more strikes to finish off the win.
“I’ve been throwing it pretty well,” Kalinowski said. “I’m pretty satisfied with what I’ve been doing for my first year. Just made some mistakes.”
Esterle, a Summit Racing employee, is trying to mix his bowling in with coaching Highland as postseason high school tournament action approaches.
“Getting off of work at 2 helps,” said Esterle, who also bowls two leagues a week. “Our matches and practices are at 3:30 or 4 so it works for me. I schedule around my bowling. My kid’s in college. My wife doesn’t always like it, but that’s what they signed me up for.”
As for Highland heading toward tournament play?
“They’ve been pretty good in tournaments lately, but at Eastbury (last Saturday in the Sectional Warmup), they struggled with spare shooting. They missed a ton and it cost us,” Esterle added.
But Esterle made sure that wasn’t his problem Sunday in Akron, in the same center where his team will bowl OHSAA Division I sectionals in three weeks.
NOTEBOOK: The sweeper, which tournament director Frank Dallas changed to a singles event instead of his usual doubles this time, drew 23 bowlers on the center’s house oil pattern, which played tougher for a lot of the field. Only 11 of the 23 players averaged 200 or better during qualifying. … Alford earned the final stepladder spot by shooting 223 his final game, finishing 12 pins ahead of J.D. Jones (858), who shot 204 for the final cash spot. … Alford and Chase Barstow, who finished eighth, were the lone players to shoot 200 for all four qualifying games. … Dallas has not yet settled on a date for the next Spins Bowl sweeper in February.
SUNDAY SCRATCH SINGLES SWEEPER
(Sunday, at Spins Bowl, Akron)
Stepladder finals
Match 1: Jeff Alford d. Dave Mramor Jr. 215-162; Mramor wins $110.
Match 2: Brian Scott Esterle d. Alford 210-183; Alford wins $140.
Championship: Esterle d. Kyle Kalinowski 268-227; Esterle wins $430, Kalinowski wins $220.
Other cashers
(With four-game qualifying totals)
5, J.D. Jones 858, $66.
