Long Island Summer Bowling Tour!

Centereach NY -

The LISBT finished its run at centereach lanes this past friday night, august 31. 4 new champions were crowned as a field of 55 bowlers hit the lanes. 

Junior scratch division: for the second straight week on the LISBT, the junior scratch division turned into a one man wrecking crew in the qualifying round. tom coraci, mastic, last week at Port Jeff and this week at centereach. joe zullo jr., floral park, dominated the 4 game qualifier with a 935. his closest competitor, scott schultz, huntington, finished second with an 802. schultz's effort however should be noted. the young man rolled a 132 in game 1 and found himself in 10th place. however, he rolled a 670 series in the back 3, highlighted by a 266 in game 2 that put him right back in the thick of things and placed him in fourth after 2. third spot came down to mike wodzinski, east meadow, and 3 time champion coraci. 3rd after 3 games, coraci unexpectedly bowled a 150 in game 4. however, wodzinski, 4th after 3 and trailing coraci by 18 pins, didn't exactly walk home free into the finals. the east meadow native struggled to a 170 and just barely edged out coraci by two pins, 745-743. for wodzinski however, he almost relived the nightmare he went through in Port Jeff earlier in the summer. it was there that wodzinski, in a very comfortable position after game 3, self destructed in game 4 and it cost him any shot at the title that night. 

in the semi final game vs. schultz, schultz would continue to take care of business while wodzinski continued to struggle. schultz took the hammer to wodzinski and defeated him 232-179. it left wodzinski disappointed. "Do I get any award for finishing 3rd three times?" a dejected wodzinski said referring to his 3-3rd place finishes on the Long Island summer Bowling tour. Wodzinski on the other hand was thankful that he was "going home with at least something. i guess that's ok isn't it?" he said as he smiled. 

joe zullo jr has been here before. 3 times to be exact. he finished second at county line on july 13 and second last week at port jeff. in qualifying, the talented left hander averaged 233.75, demolishing the field. in the 3rd game, he threw strikes on his first 7 shots en route to a 279. all the pieces were in place for him to win his first title. everything he needed going for him he had. however, nobody told scott schultz the game plan. 

In the championship game, schultz kept himself out of trouble by throwing quality shots and converting his spares. for zullo jr, things were different. zullo struggled from the outset, missing spares and leaving wide splits, and lost to schultz, 205-141.  

Adult Scratch Division: The field may have been small, however the competition was thisclose for advancing to the final round. with only two bowlers advancing to the finals, 22 pins would separate seeds one through 5. in fact, 8 pins would separate first from third and 2 pins would be the difference of advancing. Jim Papazissimos, Rochester NY, would find himself at the top spot with an 808 for four games. papazissimos, the only bowler to be plus in game 4,  jumped from 5th after 3 into the top spot by rolling a 216 in the final game. in second place, gayle archacki, cleveland OH, went from fourth after game 3 to second with a 195 in the final game, was at 802. just missing by 2 pins would be lawrence fleischman, coram at 800 and 9 pins off the pace would be jim bohleber, miller place at 793.

for the first time in its brief history, two out of state bowlers would bowl for the championship in an a2Z tournament. and for the first time in its brief history, a female competitor would win the adult scratch division. gayle archacki. archacki easily defeated papazissimos 210-147 to win the title. 

Adult handicap division:  like father like son. although Joe Zullo sr, floral park, did not separate himself from the pack of adult handicap bowlers like his son did, he did however lead from start to finish in qualifying. opening up with a 269 scratch, zullo sr. added games of 226, 234 and 199 that powered his way to a 918 scratch and a 1002 w/hdcp. zullo sr would need every pin as paul oliva, brooklyn, was only 9 pins off the pace with a 992 w/hdcp. rounding out the top 5 who advanced were frank collins, centereach, 986, nicole lyle, sound beach, 938 and rich berezein, selden also with a 938. finishing 4 pins back was benny wong, port jeff station at 934. 

in the brackets elimination round, oliva defeated berezein, 240-233 w/hdcp and lyle defeated collins, 216-194 w/hdcp. 

in the semi final match, lyle would bowl her highest game of the night, 201 scratch, that would prove to be too much for oliva. although oliva rolled a 200 scratch (229 w/hdcp) , it was lyle's 253 w/hdcp that would put her into the championship game vs. zullo sr.

getting a number 1 seed in a tournament where byes are given, can be a distraction. On the LISBT, where 5 bowlers advance to the finals, the number 1 seed, while guaranteed a spot in the championship match, does have to wait approximately 1 hour before being called upon to bowl. several times this summer, the #1 seed has not been able to sustain the momentum they gathered during qualifying. this past friday would be no different. zullo sr, who was locked in during qualifying settled for a 199 scratch (220 w/hdcp) in the championship game. however, lyle on the other hand was on a roll. she finished with a 201 scratch and with handicap, it gave her a 253. for zullo sr, all was not lost. ZulIo, reflecting about the LISBT "I  believe that you accomplished what you started out to do. I spent a number of enjoyable Fridays with my son (even though I was not allowed to watch him bowl) at your tournaments. I know that my son's experience during these tournaments can only help him in future competitions." 

Junior hdcp division: Bryan solomon, east meadow, led all bowlers with a 1002 w/hdcp series after 4 games. in second, chris jove, port jeff station was at 979. the 3 remaining bowlers who advanced to the final round were tommi may mcnally, northport, 974, adam solomon, east meadow, 946 and matthew rabin, centereach at 943. failing to make the cut two pins back was august 17 champion at sayville, matt sulzer, bohemia at 941.

in the brackets elimination round mcnally defeated solomon 260-258 w/hdcp while jove took care of rabin 234-216 w/hdcp. 

in the semifinal round, mcnally put early pressure on jove as she converted spares in frames 2 and 3. it wasn't until the late frames did jove put mcnally away for good. jove finished with a flurry of strikes that made things too difficult for mcnally and he won the match going away, 266-224 w/hdcp. mcnally however was not discouraged. the 7th grader plans to "continue to improve and hope to be able to bowl for the northport HS varsity Girls team in the future".  when asked by tournament co-director Ken Zagorski about being able to compete at a HS level and maintain grades at the same time, mcnally responded very confidently that "My grades come first. I have a ways to go in bowling. but this is fun and it is something i want to do". 

in the championship game that featured jove and solomon, jove showed signs early he was wearing down. through the first 7 frames, he was unable to throw a strike. in fact, solomon, pretty much had things under control despite the fact that he left an untimely 6-7split in frame 7 that he failed to convert even 1 pin on the spare. for the most part, solomon kept out of trouble and cruised to a 273-221 victory giving him his first ever title on the LISBT.      

great job by all bowlers who competed!   

A total of 55 entries participated in the event. Next on tap? somewhere very soon. perhaps by late september or early october!  

Thanx for all the support. 

Final Standings after Qualifying

Payout