The JV match against East Ascension proved to be a real barnburner providing narrow margins, clutch shots and a final score that was close enough that a single frame in any game could have made the difference. It was almost as perfect a match as you could start off young high school bowling careers with.
We decided to seed the lineup for the beginning of the season using the same startup rules for varsity. If you had a varsity average from last season, it was used, otherwise any games in varsity were used as a secondary starting average. After that a book average was considered an finally a rolling average over the last few practices. This gave us an unusual lineup, which is common for the first match even on the varsity side.
Game one started off with two outstanding games on the low lane with Cooper Bush taking his point with a 184 and Andrew Wilson taking his with a 171. The low lane dominated total pins enough to give some losses on the high lane a little room and giving the Jackets a 4-4 tie heading into game two. The Jackets lost head to head matches 2-4 and led total pins 785-750 after one stanza to salvage the tie in the game.
Game two saw solid performances from Andrew Wilson again with a 164. Wyatt Wells dropped a 128 in the one spot to carry his point. Still EA managed to not only even the score but pull ahead 9-7 heading into game three on the strength of 3 head to head wins and total pins. The Jackets were down by 11 heading into the last game.
Game three saw the Jackets jump out a little early with a lead that they needed to hold to win. It came down to the 10th frame in the 6 spot where the Jackets needed a mark in the 10th and count from Hunter Norwood to take the match. He delivered with a spare and 8 to give the Jackets the final 16 pin margin which gave us the final 3 for total pins.
Hunter Norwood delivered consistent performances out of the 6 spot to average 142 on the day. Andrew Wilson led all bowlers with a 474 series.
Every bowler managed to get in at least one game during the match. All in all it was a good outing, with much of the team meeting or exceeding expectations.
Wyatt Wells, Andrew Wilson and Hunter Norwood each secured 2 wins for the team.
The final score was 16-11 for the Jackets.
