BATON ROUGE -

As we get ready to turn the calendar to May over at the Raising Canes River Center in the USBC Open Championships and I think we are seeing the scoring pace we had hoped we might get.

It’s always a tricky thing when the pattern designers have to come up with patterns that will play on newly constructed lanes. That was shown in 2012 when the pattern proved on new lanes to be one that caused more problems on spare shots than the first ball.

In 2005 at the River Center, there were 12 perfect 300 games. That was the fewest in a then ABC Championship since 1990 when there were just four that year. In 2012, the 300 number was 19. Last year in Reno at the National Bowling Stadium, there were 36 perfect games.

While the team event pattern seems very touchy and a pattern that one board miss means either it will not get to the pocket or it will go too far into the head pin, the doubles and singles pattern has the potential to be and has been a high scoring pattern. Even more impressive is how high scoring the pattern has been on the low-end lanes at All Star Lanes in Baton Rouge for the Bowlers Journal.

So far in about two months of bowling, there have been nine 300s at the River Center. Two came within an hour of each other as Angelo Gentile of New York and Wisconsin’s Chad Kuehmichel each posted perfect games on Friday.

All nine 300 games have been on the doubles and singles pattern. The highest games on the team pattern were two 298 games. Both 800 series were shot in doubles. More evidence is that Monday early the lead in doubles went to a very strong 1,483 by Scott Anderson and Nathan Sanders of Florida.

Using the doubles and singles pattern at All Star at the Bowlers Journal, there have been at least 10 300 games so far. So we’ll see as some other good bowlers are coming in the next few weeks how many more perfect moments there are and if anyone can crack the 300 drought on the team pattern.

AREA BOWLERS
Did a bit of a dive into the standings for the event to see where some of the area bowlers are presently hovering at this point of the tournament.

In the regular division, the top average division, Justin Veitch of Kenner is part of the 13th place team from Florida (Storm Products) at 3,080. He is No. 37 with Jon Rakoski of Estero, Florida in doubles with a nice 1,325 total and Veitch’s all-events total of 1,986 is presently 43rd.

The Phat Kids Crew from Illinois is still the leader for the prestigious top team division with the only 3,300 of the event at 3,300 even.

In the standard division which is a 156-175 average group (remember, these are converted to sport shot averages and your total career average at the USBC Open), Todd Compton of Prairieville and Josh Alewine of Zachary are sixth in doubles at 1,206.

The classified division, for bowlers of 155 and below average, has had a good showing by Nicole Hill of Carencro who is T13 as of Sunday at 1,580 and 31st in singles at 561.

The Cajun Hammers No. 5 team from the Lafayette area is 15th in the classified five-man event at 2,336.

There are three area teams in the top 25 in the division with Friday Stephen Oleske of Lafayette teaming with Brian Wilson of Epping, New Hampshire for a 1,026 total and 10th place. Charlie Domingue of Hammond and Sherry Palmer of Denham Springs is 13th at 1,020 and Monica Bowen and Gregory Johnson of Lafayette are 24th at 1,007.

THE BTM

The BTM event at All Star we mentioned last week with the entry donations for the Camp for Kids that Cancer Services of Baton Rouge puts together. There are several different events that Rick Ramsey puts together including a Nine-Pine No Tap tournament (nine on the first ball is as good as a strike). Three bowlers have posted the perfect-perfect-perfect 900 series of three 300 games no-tap. Chris Hettinger, Sara Jones and Dan Higgins have posted that so far.

The BTM will host a special shift Friday at 5 p.m. at All Star in the no-tap tournament. Some 70 bowlers are already registered and there are a few limited spots available so contact Ramsey at the bowling center to see if anything available.

So as you see, things are rolling very nicely at the USBC Open. Well, they are rolling better in doubles and singles, apparently according to the numbers.

Quarterfinals of the PBA Playoffs begin this week on FS1 with shows on Saturday and Sunday at 6 CT. These shows are being taped Monday through Wednesday at Thunderbowl in Allen Park, Michigan. Only the May 24 championship round will be broadcast live.

Back with more next Monday, until then good luck and good bowling.