By BILL SNIER
AKRON — Going into the practice session for the opening matches, Fred Olivieri Construction captain Jim Fellows still was unsure of his lineup.
But once he and teammate Troy Wilt saw how Scott Hopkins was rolling the ball, their decision was made.
“Scott had the best look, and we just rolled from there,” said Wilt, a 45-year-old Perry Township right-hander.
Fred Olivieri Construction, averaging 239.9 on the night and the No. 3 seed in its own division, had just one game under 230 in the title match to top defending champion RJ Flooring 3-1 in the all-Baker System championship finals of the Northeast Ohio Travel League on Thursday night at Station 300.
Eight teams — four each from the American and National divisions in the 16-team league — made the rolloff, which consisted of best three-of-five Baker matches by seed, with two wild-card teams being among the grouping. This marked the 11th season that this style has been used for the league rolloff.
Fellows, a 57-year-old Perry Township left-hander who won the NEOTL title for the first time as a captain, also claimed the crown for the first time since the league went to a trio format from its former four-man teams.
“Scott had a look all day long from practice on,” said Fellows, who stuck with his same lineup of Hopkins, Wilt and himself all three matches. “We weren’t going to change it.’
It was the first title overall for Wilt, who was in his third year in the league, and Hopkins, a 25-year-old Uniontown right-hander who was low man on the team with a 207 season average.
“I just felt comfortable all night. I switched to my Track Criterion and I felt comfortable with that ball all season,” said Hopkins, who bowled the first, fourth, seventh and 10th frames in the three-man Baker format as the leadoff. “It just felt right all night.”
RJ FLOORING’S RUN
RJ Flooring captain Josh Haddad was looking for his second straight title albeit with a different team in the draft league. After winning with Justin McIlvain and Kara Thomas a year ago, this year’s team originally had J.D. Jones and Chris Logan.
But when Jones suffered a work-related injury in August which cost him part of the finger on his right hand, Haddad was able to bring in left-hander Mike Thewes to replace him. Jones attended the rolloff to support his former team.
“I was able to get the captains to vote Mike in and we had a great regular season … a solid season, considering what we had to experience. ” said Haddad, whose team led the NEOTL in points and was the overall No. 1 seed. “I just felt so bad for J.D. when that happened.
“But we were fortunate enough to get Mike to bowl. We had a lot of fun.”
One of the catch phrases the team used both during the rolloff and during the regular season was “corner three” when one of them rolled a strike or made a good shot.
“It’s from an old ‘Family Guy’ (TV show) clip. It’s just something stupid and it was funny,” Haddad said. “It was just something dumb that we said and it kept us fired up all season.”
RJ Flooring, which averaged 235. 58 on the night, scored 3-1 wins over Triway Lanes in its opening match and Buckeye Plumbing in the semifinals with Thewes leading off, followed by Logan and Haddad.
“Up until we had our first sub-200 game (Game 3 of the finals), we were clean and stayed out of some big trouble. We covered our spares,” Haddad said. “Mike was just a beast on covering 7-pins. We were never out of any game and we never had one get away from us.”
OLIVIERI ON MOVE
Fred Olivieri Construction had a similar night, averaging 247.5 en route to a 3-1 win over Roto Grip in its opening match. In the semifinals, the team rolled 268 in Game 2 to take a 2-0 lead, but fell 267-213 to Park Centre in Game 3.
But the team held on for a 215-206 win in Game 4 to advance. Its low game during its opening two matches was 213.
TITLE MATCH
Haddad had the choice of lanes for the title match on Lanes 13 and 14. But the approach on Lane 13 played into that decision.
“We had issues with the approach on 13 so we decided to start on 14,” Haddad said. “As it turned out, 13 was the higher scoring lane so we kind of made the wrong decision there.”
While the two teams combined to average 246 on the left lane, they averaged just 222 on the right.
“The left lane kind of threw us off a little bit because the approach was tacky,” Fellows said. “It kind of threw our timing off when we went to the right lane.”
Olivieri took Game 1 259-238, leaving just 4-pin and 10-pin spares while RJ Flooring had to shoot four spares with both teams being clean.
The right lane was a problem in Game 2 as Hopkins missed a 10-pin spare in the first frame and Haddad left a 3-7 split in the ninth as RJ Flooring won 238-202, staying clean again.
Then, RJ Flooring had to return to the right lane as the two teams rotated for each game. Thewes left a pocket 7-10 split in the first frame, and Logan and Haddad missed consecutive 10-pin spares in the eight and ninth as Olivieri took a 2-1 advantage with a 231-183 win.
But both teams went on a tear in the final game, striking on their first six shots. But after Hopkins covered a 3-6-10 spare in the seventh, Thewes left his second pocket 7-10 split in the same frame.
It proved to be the difference as Olivieri ran off three straight strikes before Hopkins left his own pocket 7-10 split on his second ball in 10th frame to claim a 265-256 win and the title.
“We had a couple of bad breaks that last game that went against us,” Haddad said. “But it all evens out in the end.
“We chose the right lane all night because these lanes here play so different. I bowl here on Mondays and the right lanes always seem to be higher scoring. It worked out well for us all night until that last match.”
Olivieri had two of its three splits on their second balls in the 10th frames during the title match and just one missed spare; RJ Painting had two missed spares and the two 7-10 splits.
“This is just awesome. It’s great when you can get two guys out of the (draft) pool and we all meshed so well,” Fellows said. “It was a team effort. To travel to all these houses with these two guys … it’s just a great thing.”
DRAFT UP NEXT
The NEOTL’s player draft is set for 6 p.m. May 17 at Park Centre Lanes. There is a $10 application fee. The league bowls a 30-week season with starting times between 8 and 9:30 p.m. Thursdays at bowling centers in Stark, Wayne, Summit and Portage counties. Weekly fees are $25.
For a draft applications, go to: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdro0ftjmc0l4XR76ZiW1DZCHH6YhzlAw9qU_AVYV2-Qc7QRg/viewform?fbclid=IwY2xjawJ4tEVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETF6dnFvVUkwc25WUzNJVVo2AR6xDBH-0aFWfSc3Ju5SW9Y_Wp52cpe0xsBbmzrQGwrkT7gPawymOdIF9ei8-g_aem_1YnuR3nUY3FkLn376_cT3Q
NOTEBOOK: High games during the rolloff both belonged to Buckeye Plumbing of 278 and 268. … A total of 58 Baker games were rolled during the event with the eight teams averaging a collective 229.34 overall. … There were eight sub-200 games rolled, including the one in the title match. … A promo video on the league with information appears on the NEOTL Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/NEOHIOTL … Only one match went beyond four games, with Park Centre advancing out of the quarterfinals with a 3-2 win over Elite Gutterworks, taking Game 5 247-234. All other matches were 3-1. … The rolloff, which began at 8:30 p.m., lasted over three hours due to various mechanical errors on the lanes during semifinal matches.
NORTHEAST OHIO TRAVEL LEAGUE ROLLOFF
(Thursday, at Station 300, Akron)
Quarterfinals
American Division
RJ Flooring (226-237-247-235) d. Triway Lanes (249-221-172-118) 3-1
Buckeye Plumbing (204-278-243-244) d. Integrity Aquatics (247-255-173-190) 3-1
National Division
Park Centre Lanes (226-246-217-248-247) d. Elite Gutterworks (216-236-222-255-234) 3-2
Fred Olivieri Construction (255-255-235-245) d. Roto Grip (198-166-236-182) 3-1
Semifinals
RJ Flooring (226-226-256-259) d. Buckeye Plumbing (214-268-172-215) 3-1
Fred Olivieri Construction (236-268-213-215) d. Park Centre (211-220-267-206)
Championship
Fred Olivieri Construction (259-202-231-265) d. RJ Flooring (238-238-183-256) 3-1
SENIOR TRAVEL LEAGUE ROLLOFF
The Ellsworth Auto Body Senior Travel League, based in Stark County, also held its rolloff recently with Spins Bowl-Akron capturing the title
Members of the winning team included Rich Dazey Jr., Dean Ring, Herb Ducksworth and Rick Kmetz. Spins won in a traditional seven-point rolloff.
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