A Jesuit bowler slowly walks up to the rack and grabs his ball. He takes a step back, attempting to line up his shot. Satisfied, he takes three steps foward and hurls the ball down the lane. All the pins fall. “Strike!” his teammates yell.
This was the scene Saturday, January 10th as the Jesuit bowling team fought a tough match against Lake Highlands, just barely coming out on top. The team won by a score of 8-7, relying on team captains Matthew Martin ’15 and Michael Case ’15 to carry the team to victory. The team did great, winning four out of the five individual matches, but the team struggled in the Baker matches, going only one for three. Despite the Baker matches, a few strong performances from the captains and Trey Russell ’16 were enough to bring home the win.
For those unfamiliar with the setup of a bowling match, there are two parts: first, there are two games of individual bowling, in which each person bowls his or her own game. The team starts five of its players versus the opponent’s five players, so they each are bowling against one opponent, and the team with the best cumulative score wins. These individual matches are usually played by Michael Case ’15, Matthew Martin ’15, Luke Snyder ’15, Robert Africa ’15, and Trey Russell ’16. Then, after individuals, the teams compete in “Bakers,” three games where each person on the team gets 2 frames of the game. So, for example, one person may recieve frames one and six while another person gets two and seven and so on. The “anchor” gets five and ten, and thus has the biggest role, since he can technically bowl three frames as the 10th has three possibilities for a strike. Normally, a team places their strongest players on frames four/nine and five/ten since they can have the biggest significance in the game. Bakers give more points then individuals, so even if a team wins all the individual games they still must win at least one Baker to win the entire match.
After the narrow win, Captain Michael Case ’15 commented, “The team played alright, but we definitely could have and should have preformed better as a team.” Even after a tough game, the bowling team continues to focus on each future game. Chad Uy ’17 said, “We just have to go out there and keep practicing so we can get better.”
Jesuit should continue on with their schedule and road to State. Their next game will be this Saturday against Trinity. It will be a tough game, but with Jesuit’s talent, hopefully they will be able to come out with another win.
