Sports
Scotch Plains Bowlers Edged by Linden in Close Match
The battle of the top teams proves exciting.
Sometimes it all comes down to a spare or two, and that's exactly what happened Wednesday afternoon when Linden topped Scotch Plains-Fanwood 5-2 at Jersey Lanes in a battle of two of the best teams in the area.
Linden, ranked No. 2 in the Union County standings, and SP-F, ranked fourth, took their fight right down to the last frame of the first two games. The Tigers barely won the first game by just 7 pins before taking the middle game by only 11 pins.
"The first two games, we didn't pick up too many spares," said the Raiders' Peter Citera. "And in bowling, spares are something you can always rely on more than strikes. We just didn't shoot spares well."
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"We're a little disappointed," added SP-F coach James Mason. "The first two games we lost by a total of 18 pins, we missed some easy spares that we normally make, they had one guy bowl 40 pins over his average the first two games. It seems that when we play the good teams, that happens, but I was proud the way they came back in the third game. They bowled very well. It's a long season and we still have the counties and states coming up, so we're looking forward to some good competition."
The Raiders, indeed caged the Tigers in the third game, besting their opponents by a solid 53 pins, but the damage was already done.
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"It's always great to salvage a game in this league," Citera said. "Winning one game gives you points in the standings, so we preserve fourth-place in the standings. You move on. We always bounce back from games like this."
It was another strong performance for Nick Stawicki, who rolled a match-high series of 665 that included a 256 in the first game. Leadoff man Citera rolled a 599, led by a 213 in the finale. Katarina Nier posted a 202 in her final game en route to a 528 series. Mike Tufaro finished with a 532 and Greg Budis rolled a 513 series.
The pressure of bowling a tough rival just before the upcoming county tournament should only be helpful when they perform on Monday's big stage.
"It's always good when you play a good team just before counties," Stawicki said. "We just hope in counties we'll bowl against them, hopefully we'll meet in the finals."
"As I like to say, it gets the blood flowing a little bit," Citera added. "It definitely brings us into the next match with a lot of momentum. We're looking to bowl far above our average in counties. We have high expectations, all of us have expectations and we want to exceed them."
The county tournament starts on Monday February 1 and continues Wednesday February 3 with the team competition. Individual champions will be crowned on Thursday February 4.