By BILL SNIER
CUYAHOGA FALLS — The start of Sunday’s title match of the 13th annual Kreative Touch March Madness Tournament was not going well for Alex Ridings.
The Streetsboro right-handed two-hander missed a 10-pin spare in the first frame and then had a spare on a 2-4-5 leave in the second frame.
Green High School girls coach Alex Snowberger, Ridings’ former high school and Wright State University teammate and roommate, tried to settle his friend down.
“He came back saying, ‘It’s over’ after just two frames. I need to keep encouraging him and keeping him up,” Snowberger said. “It’s still early.”
But Ridings sensed what was coming.
Joe Bailey became a three-time champion of the event by finishing with the high two-game series of the day — a 535 — to claim the win at Clutch Lanes and Sports Center. Ridings finished with 389.
It was Bailey’s first win in the event since it was moved to Clutch Lanes from the former Sto-Kent Lanes five years ago.
“We drove to Indianapolis on Friday night to look at a car and we had our toddler with us,” the 43-year-old right-hander said. “Then we came back last night. I think I got about two hours sleep Friday night.
I threw it marginal in qualifying, but after the second round of match play I started throwing it pretty good. The timing got in the right spot finally and when the timing is right, it’s easier to have a clean release, which gives you the better carry and a little bite of miss room down lane.”
The unique format included the entire field of 64 players rolling three opening games after which they were seeded into four brackets. The top four qualifiers were the No. 1 seeds in each. Bowlers then bowled a series of two-game elimination matches in rounds of 64, 32, 16, eight, four and the final two for the title.
The two winners each bowled 15 games on the day.
“I think I’m pretty excited just to go home and sleep,” said Ridings, who was making his first March Madness appearance and bowled in his first title match.
But the Kegel ABT10 48-foot oil pattern took its toll on the entire field, with the high qualifying three-game series being Lexi Cloud’s 671. In fact, only nine players averaged 200 or better in that opening round.
PUSHING THROUGH
Bailey, who has not bowled a tournament since the Ohio State USBC Open Championships a month ago, admitted he went through multiple bowling balls hoping to find an answer. He shot 549 during the opening three games to earn the No. 27 seed.
“I think I was conducting a ball demo during qualifying to see if I could find something that worked,” said Bailey, who admitted he went through “double digit” pieces of equipment. “It was very difficult to clear the front and still get something to read the mids and down lane to correctly go through the pins and create different angles for carry.”
Bailey, who is a stay-at-home dad, only bowls league every two weeks at Kolony Lanes in Wadsworth.
“It was just some bad shot-making and some bad decision-making from not bowling,” Bailey said about qualifying and early match play. “There were a couple of pairs that were just brutal.
“With the limited field, you get people with different ideas on how to play the pattern. So, sometimes, the pairs get to be borderline unplayable.”
After shooting 444 during his opening match in the Round of 64, Bailey caught fire, shooting 484 and 503 his next two matches before having to rally for a 340-332 win over Taylor Suchan in the quarterfinals.
In the semifinals, he shot 233 in Game 2, stringing four strikes to start the game, to claim a 410-376 win over 56-year-old Perry Township right-hander Tony Confalone, who had just returned from a Florida vacation Saturday evening.
“It came down to a case of managing the bad pairs and making sure to utilize the good pairs. That’s what makes it interesting. You’re not bowling the field, but bowling your opponent on a pair,” Bailey said. “So, if it’s a bad pair, it means making a couple of extra spares to get around a split. Hopefully, your opponent also makes a mistake.
“It’s not a race at that point. If you can put four or five strikes together, you can make up a lot of ground really quickly,”
ROLLING IN MATCHES
Ridings, realistically, never expected to be bowling in the title match. The 24-year-old converted to a two-hand delivery as a sophomore in high school, increasing his average by nearly 40 pins.
But he has one quirk in his delivery. He interlocks his fingers vertically while releasing shots.
“Me and my friend would mess around and throw two-handed shots after practice in high school and that’s how I always held the ball when I did it,” said Ridings, who works at Raccoon Hill Golf Club in Kent and was wearing his Stow-Munroe Falls High School bowling T-shirt.
“(Stow coach) John Martin fine-tuned everything, but he never said anything about that. So I just kept it. I’ve tried separating them, but I don’t feel like I have as much control.”
Ridings caught fire during match play after shooting just 502 in qualifying to be seeded No. 50. He had a high game of 169.
“I think during those three games I had a total of seven strikes. The big thing for me was sticking with it,” said Ridings, who had bowled plenty of college events with five individual games one day and plenty of Baker System games on Day 2, but never 15 in a day.
“I had eight strikes my first match and the lanes just kind of opened up for me. I was playing a fader, which I was trying to do all day, but I didn’t have any miss room to the right. When match play started, they opened up more for me.”
Using a combination of the Hammer Black Widow Ghost and Roto Grip Attention Star, Ridings had series of 422, 396 (with 226 in Game 2) and 403 twice — the last coming in a Round of 8 win over Canton’s Chris Logan 403-380. He then held off defending champion Kevin Oravecz 420-355 in the semifinals to earn his spot in the finals.
By then, the pain in his hand and, later his arm, became real.
TITLE MATCH
Blistering on his fingers had become a problem for Ridings heading into the title match.
“I think I have about six blisters on my fingers,” Ridings said.
But while he started the title match with an open, Bailey found his line early — and often.
Bailey started with five strikes, left a 10-pin spare in the sixth, and then ran off four more strikes en route to 268 in Game 1.
Ridings also found his groove in the third frame, running off four straight strikes through the sixth. The problem was, he had just three more strikes over the next 12 frames. He finished Game 1 with 209.
But the two-hander also felt something in his right forearm near the elbow heading into the match.
“I don’t know what it is. I feel like my arm is going to fall off,” said Ridings, who added he felt like something “snapped” near his elbow.
Game 2 was all Bailey.
He started with the front four strikes, left a 7-pin spare and then ran off five more into the 10th frame.
What changed from earlier?
“This pair was quite a bit tighter,” Bailey said of Lanes 13 and 14. “I was able to move back right and shut down the angle a little bit. The new (Motiv) Evoke Hysteria just read the pair perfectly.
“It worked good in a few matches today, but the lanes being tighter definitely helped.”
Ridings, obviously concerned with his physical problems, had just two strikes through eight frames in Game 2 and left 8-10 and 4-6-7-9-10 splits during that period. He managed to throw four strikes in a row to finish with 180.
“It just feels great to do this. I’m proud that I was able to stay with it the whole time,” said Ridings, who vows to make more tourney appearances in the future. “I was throwing it pretty good. They just broke down in my favor when I needed it.”
As for Bailey, his next tourney appearance will be the PBA Central Region Over 50-Under 50 doubles event with Don Hogue, also at Clutch Lanes in April. Then, it’s bowling the pre-tournament qualifier with hopes of earning a spot in the PBA Tournament of Champions at AMF Riviera Lanes in Fairlawn.
He also is the defending champion at the Furbay Electric Open in Canton. Then, it’s a return to the USBC Open Championships in Baton Rouge, La., where his Higgy’s Aquarium team is the defending regular all-events champion, earning his third USBC Eagle.
“My wife’s job is very demanding, so I really haven’t done much bowling,” said Bailey, who will return to the USBC in late May. “I like to do a lot with my 4-year-old. But about a month out, we’ll start getting ready for nationals.”
NOTEBOOK: Bailey had two of the three 500 series during match play with Oravecz shooting an even 500 for the third. … This was the fifth time the tourney has been held at Clutch Lanes, with Matt and Kevin Oravecz, DJ Assaf and Ryan Liederbach being the other past champions there. …. Conner Novak shot 266 out of the gate to lead after Game 1 of the opening three games, but had just 138 in Game 2. He was the No. 11 seed overall. … Two of the No. 1 seeds — Cloud and No. 2 finisher Meeco Walker — fell in the Round of 64 to No. 64 Erik Calet and No. 63 Tom Thorne, respectively. The other two top seeds — Josh Haddad and Andrew Smith — fell in Round of 32 matches to Taylor Suchan and David Mramor Jr., respectively. … Taylor Suchan was the lone lefty to reach the round of eight, and Ridings was the lone two-hander. … High game of the day was 268 during match play. Eric Long had the high game during the three-game opening round with 267. … The four top seeds each received a $100 bonus. First place overall paid $2,000. … Kreative Touch Property Services was the title sponsor. … We would like to thank tournament director Eric Randazzo and Les and Kim Mann for their assistance with this report.
KREATIVE TOUCH MARCH MADNESS
(Sunday, at Clutch Lanes and Sports Center, Cuyahoga Falls)
Round of 16
(Each loser receives $130)
Pat Adolph d. TJ Charles 444-427; Tony Confalone d. Anthony Daymon 349-328; Taylor Suchan d. Evan Dalziel 326-315; Joe Bailey d. Antonio Vernon 503-331; Alex Ridings d. Martez Walker 403-401; Chris Logan d. Adam Webb 352-312; Tim Voytko d. David Mramor Jr. 397-376; Kevin Oravecz d. Larry Szymczak Sr. 381-379.
Round of Eight
(Each loser receives $250)
Confalone d. Adolph 386-330; Bailey d. Suchan 340-332; Ridings d. Logan 403-380; Oravecz d. Voytko 455-428
Final Four
(Losers each receive $500)
Bailey d. Confalone 410-376; Ridings d. Oravecz 420-355
Championship
(Winner receives $2,000; loser receives $1,000)
Bailey d. Ridings 535-379