By BILL SNIER
COSHOCTON — The 38-foot Marshal Holman oil pattern was a survival test for 26 of the 27 players in the field.
And then there was 53-year-old North Olmsted right-hander Michael Clark Jr.
“I led the tournament. I don’t know what he was bowling,” said seven-time Professional Bowlers Association regional champion Larry Verbles said, laughing. “He must have been bowling at some other center. He wasn’t bowling here.”
Clark, chasing his third overall regional title, averaged 242 over his first four games and finished as the qualifying leader following the opening eight games of the PBA50 Legacy Lanes Central Open on Saturday at Legacy Lanes and Lounge.
Clark, who admittedly lost focus over his final four games in realizing he had clinched a spot in the final eight for match play, averaged just 202.5 over the final four to finish plus-10 for those four with 1,783 total pinfall (a 222.8 average)
That still would have put him fourth overall.
“I found a good ball that just matched up for me,” said Clark, who teamed with Rootstown’s Dean Billings to capture the PBA Park Centre 50-60 Doubles last year for his first PBA50 regional title. He used a Roto Grip RST Hyperdrive most of the day.
“It’s a new ball and had a little bit of surface on it, but not a lot of games. I was able to read off the urethane and it worked well. I had the world off of that.”
The top eight players advanced to Sunday’s 9 a.m. match-play rounds, with the quarterfinal round being best three-of-five games, while the semifinals and finals will be best-of-three.
The remainder of the field, needless to say, didn’t have the lane look of Clark.
Super senior Verble, a 60-year-old Mason, Mich., right-hander, was qualifying runner-up with 1,624 — 159 pins behind Clark. In fact, after trailing by just two pins after Game 1, Clark shot 730 over his first three to build a 111-pin lead.
It never got below 150 after that.
“I just wish it was round-robin match play,” said Clark about the format where pins from qualifying carry over. Sunday, everyone is back to zero.
In some cases, one big game made all the difference or a couple of games.
Gross Ile, Mich., right-hander Steve Kenyon was out of the cut until shooting a tourney-high 278 his final game to jump all the way to third, just 11 pins behind Verble.
Kenyon, who just turned 60 to be a super senior, said “I finally got far enough left.”
“I was really inside more than really anyone else because of my ball speed,” Kenyon said. “After Game 7, I knew that if I stayed soft with it out there it was going to come back and finish. Then, it was only a matter of making good shots and putting them together.”
Only a 4-7 spare denied him the event’s lone 300. No one else shot higher than 269.
Also making a run at the end was Lewis Center PBA50 “rookie” Dan Higgins, 50, who shot 708 over his final three games to move up to fourth.
“Ball motion (was the problem). I just had squiggly ball motion and the typography (of the lanes) pair-to-pair was really challenging,” said Higgins, who is seeking his first PBA50 win. “I switched balls the last three games (going to a 900 Global Origin) to bust out. I just took my hand out of it and fluffed it in the track area.”
Earning the final cut spot was Brunswick Hills right-hander Charles Lupica III, who will turn 60 in two week and is seeking his second PBA50 regional title in a row after winning in West Virginia. He got in despite a 164 in Game 7 and 191 in Game 8.
“I was little nervous about it .. I was really grinding,” Lupica said. “Those lanes were really hard. There was a lot of out of bounds wide and it didn’t come back, and inside, they would hook really bad. Even spares wre really hard.”
Others making the cut were former Wright State University bowling coach Jeremy Symonds (1,584), Vermillion’s John Shreve Jr. (1,575) and Eddie Graham (1,567).
“Anywhere outside of eight (board) was out of bounds,” said Shreve, a 55-year-old right-hander. “There was no recovery and not tug room. You had to get lined up with the right ball and soften the back end up.
“After a 170 in Game 7, I knew I needed 210 to 210 the last game (he shot 230) to get there.”
Even Saturday’s runaway leader expects a different center Sunday during match play. All matches will be bowled on fresh oil.
“(Saturday) you had to have the right ball speed and angle. Guys just started going around all over the place,” Clark said. “There was a lot more transition than I expected and guys played a lot of different parts of the lane.
“I expect higher scores today on the fresh with more guys playing in the same area.”
NOTEBOOK: The team of Becky Oswald, Schiane Jarvis, Mike Pullman and Mike Moats captured the Baker System style pro-am event Friday night. Four-person teams bowled 10 Baker System games with different pros, with five total teams in the field. … After a 269 in Game 5, Akron’s Don Hogue had climbed up to second behind Clark. But he shot just 536 his final three games to tie super senior Michael Llaneza for the final cash spot 1,541, missing the cut by 21 pins. … The two additional super senior cash spots went to Strasburg’s Steve Easterday (12th, 1,505) and Lorain’s Rick Zakrajsek (13th, 1,502). … There were two withdrawals due to injuries — Dave Johnson (neck) and Michael Burns (toe). Legacy Lanes owner Jeff Oswald bowled as a nonmember and finished 23rd in the field. … Sunday’s quarterfinal pairings will be Clark vs. Lupica, Verble vs. Graham, Kenyon vs. Shreve and Higgins vs. Symonds. … The tournament was sponsored by McWane Ductile.
See complete standings here:
https://www.leaguepals.com/league-info?id=685ab30218dbb9353b1aa3a2