By BILL SNIER
CANTON — In December 2023, Jason Corrin made his decision to go back to using a bowling ball that he had stopped throwing for about a month.
It resulted in a career-high 832 series in the Saturday Nite Mixed league at Eastbury Bowling Center.
Fast forward to mid-September and the 44-year-old Massillon left-hander again is throwing his Roto Grip Hyped Solid — and it brought another honor score in the same league at Eastbury.
After starting the league with a 560 the first night, the Vision Center manager returned in Week 2 with 295, 268 and 255 for an 818 series.
His only regret was that it could have been higher.
“I was hoping for 840 … that was the goal after the first two games,” Corrin said. “I lost a lot of my carry the last game. I just couldn’t get it to the pocket right.”
Corrin, who is bowling in leagues at Park Centre and Spins Bowl-Akron in addition to Eastbury, is averaging 230 and 215, respectively in the other two leagues. He is up to 238 at Eastbury after following up his 818 with a 768 to “balance out” the poor first week.
“Spins Akron has been challenging from the standpoint that the shot is there, but getting the carry and figuring out what to do has been the difficult thing,” said Corrin, who now has 12 800 series to go along with 17 300 games. “I don’t know what it is about that place, but it gets in my head and I almost force myself to do more. It causes me to tug my shots.”
But Eastbury is a different situation.
Corrin ran off the first 11 strikes in Game 1 before leaving the “super washout” — a 1-3-4-6-7 — on his final ball.
“When the ball hit the lane I knew it was inside and I was pretty much screwed on it,” Corrin said. “I was hoping it would slide, but it didn’t. I actually thought it was a good shot — until it got into a full roll.”
Game 2 he began with six strikes in a row before leaving a solid 8-pin. He also left a 6-pin spare in the 10th frame.
Game 3 produced his lone open frame of the night — a 6-pin spare miss in the eighth frame.
“When I threw it, I went straight as usual, but I slowed it down a bit and hit the hell out of it,” Corrin said, laughing. “It was gone after that.”
His goal of getting to 840 remained however in the 10th frame, but a seven-count on his second ball ruined the run.
“I really wasn’t worried about the 800 because I was pretty much locked in at that point,” Corrin said. “As long as I didn’t do anything dumb the last two frames, I was fine. I had to clean up the seven-count, but at least it was makable.”
Corrin maintained his 10-(board)-to-5 target area all night after seeing a different line his opening night.
“I dropped a couple outside that recovered nicely, but, for the most part, I stayed right where I was in practice,” Corrin said. “After the way the lanes played the previous week, I had to pull it back out and play straighter.”
But it’s been a solid start to the 2024-25 winter-fall season — something Corrin admits is unusual for him.
“Outside of that first night at Eastbury, I think the next 12 games since I’ve had six in a row to start in most games,” Corrin said. “It’s been fun so far and definitely not normal for me.”