By BILL SNIER
CANTON — Team captain Michael Emerick Jr. said he opened in the ninth frame of two games Sunday.
Both times, anchor bowler Chase Barstow “bailed me out.”
The most important one came during Game 4 of Sunday’s title match of the 11th Stark County High School Bowling Conference Alumni Tournament at Eastbury Bowling Center.
Barstow recorded a double in that 10th frame after Emerick failed to convert a 2-4-5-8 “bucket” spare to lift Timken to a 3-1 victory over Lake in the best-of-five Baker System championship.
It marked the Trojan alumni’s third title in the event and first since 2023.
“We didn’t change the lineup from the fourth game on and maybe we made two ball changes among the five of us throughout the day,” said Emerick, who was joined by Shane Heckman, Chris Mahaffey, Chance Mattern and Barstow on the winning team.
“This is just awesome. It’s my favorite tournament of the year even though I love bowling at the Christopher (Alliance’s Christopher Columbus Lanes). It’s all for the kids and a good fundraiser for the high schools. You just don’t find this format everywhere.”
The event drew 18 teams representing 12 conference schools, with all teams opening with 12 Baker System qualifying games before the field was cut to the top eight teams for best-of-five Baker match play by seed. Each player on a five-person team threw two frames per game.
Timken and Lake were the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds, respectively, with the former finishing at 2,570 (214.16 average) to the latter’s 2,484 (207 average).
“We struggled in the beginning, but then we put together some good games and led after the first (four-game) set,” Lake captain and Blue Streaks head bowling coach Jeff Mowls said. “Our scores were kind of all over the place at the end of the day.”
The Lake team consisted of Brady Tompot, Don Sprout, Steven Mowls, Jeff Mowls and Zach McCutchan.
Timken advanced to the finals with a 3-0 sweep of Green, captained by Matt Frock. The Trojan alumni had games of 232, 258 and 249 in the win.
After dropping Game 1 228-229 to Perry’s No. 2 team,, led by Adam Kutz, Lake had games of 229, 224 and 231 to earn the win, including five straight strikes to start Game 4.
MAKING THE LANE PICK
That set up the title match between Timken and Lake on Lanes 17 and 18. For the first three games, the left lane proved to be the key.
“We started the day on that pair about 16 games ago,” said Emerick, whose team had lane choice in the title match as the higher seed. “We had the better look on 17 and they didn’t have a good look on 18. We knew we would have at least two more chances at the end.
“As it turned out, we had a good look on both.”
Timken picked right, throwing eight total strikes and leaving just a 2-8-10 split en route to a 224-158 win in Game 1 as Lake had three open frames, including a pair of splits.
But Lake had the key in Game 2 on Lane 17, starting with eight straight strikes en route to a 269-223 win to even the match.
Again, Lane 17 showed up in Game 3, this time with Timken having a run of six straight strikes while Lake had just five overall as the Trojans earned a 246-191 win.
But things changed in Game 5.
“For the righties, I could see that the right lane was flying and the left lane appeared to have some hold,” said Jeff Mowls, the lone lefty among the two teams. “For me, I just couldn’t do anything the same twice.”
The game was even until Lake put together a double in the fifth and sixth frames on the left lane. But a critical run of three strikes by Timken, with Heckman carrying a Brooklyn strike and Mahaffey carrying a messenger 10-pin, kept things tight.
But Lake got another double by the Steven and Jeff Mowls while Emerick opened the ninth frame to produce the dramatic ending.
While McCutchan left a 10-pin on his first shot, Barstow struck to give Timken a chance.
“The first one, I felt confident in myself. All we needed was a spare to move on to the next game and then you win it for your team,” McCutchan said. “I got up there and my feet might have been fast or I could have rushed it, but it was right off my hand. I was just glad to just leave a wrap 10.”
However, McCutchan failed to convert the spare.
“I told myself to calm down and just pick it up. But everyone isn’t perfect,” McCutchan added. “It just sucks that I missed a spare for my team.”
Barstow knew he needed at least the first two strikes for the win after the 10-pin leave by his counterpart.
“I just wanted to get that first one and apply the pressure, and the rest played out how it did,” said Barstow, a Louisville High School graduate who was making his first appearance in the event.
“Zach was cleaning up things for us all day,” said Jeff Mowls, whose team lost the final game 210-205. “It was a tough way to end it.”
But McCutchan and Barstow, two of the younger participants at ages 20 and 22, respectively, admitted it was a great event.
“It was nice seeing the guys I bowled against in high school that I don’t see very often because they are at different centers,” Barstow said.
“It makes money to help the kids and there’s all these guys you graduated with out there,” added McCutchan, who was making his second alumni appearance. “It’s a bragging rights type of thing, but everyone is having fun.
“It was a great time, but you still want to win.”
NOTEBOOK: Marlington No. 1 was the cut line for match play in eighth place with 2,197 (183 average), finishing 57 pins ahead of Perry No. 4. … North Canton Hoover No. 1, captained by conference commissioner J.C. Heighway, won the second-chance event for teams not making the cut. The team of Highway, C.J. Diehl, Sean Dockery, Jack Reed and Preston Vukovich finished with 793 for four games to win a $100 bonus. … First place in the tournament paid $725. … This was the first time the event was held at Eastbury, with the 2025 OHSAA sectional-district oil pattern being used. … The 2026 event will be held the same weekend again at Eastbury. … The event raised $600 for the conference.
SCHSBC ALUMNI TOURNAMENT
(Sunday, at Eastbury Bowling Center, Canton)
Match-play rounds
Round of eight
(Captains listed in parenthesis along with scores)
Timken 1 (Emerick) (198-213-176-219) d. Marlington 1 (McCauley) (195-193-221-191) 3-1; Marlington wins $140
Green 1 (Frock) (195-238-224) d. McKinley 1 (McCourry) (158-235-183) 3-0, McKinley wins $188
Perry 2 (Kutz) (260-222-225) d. Perry 1 (213-190-247) 3-0; Perry 1 wins $188
Lake 1 (Mowls) (182-204-257-180) d. Carrollton 2 (Roberts) (186-124-203-178) 3-1; Carrollton 2 wins $140
Semifinals
(Scores in parenthesis)
Timken 1 (231-258-249) d. Green 1 (198-180-181) 3-0; Green wins $300
Lake 1 (222-229-224-231) d, Perry 2 (228-207-219-190) 3-1; Perry 2 wins $300
Championship
(Scores in parenthesis)
Timken 1 (224-223-246-210) d. Lake 1 (158-269-191-205) 301; Timken wins $725, Lake wins $475