Thursday Lines

Quick recap of Tuesday first – Back in Black clinched the #1 overall seed, and Yahztzee clinched #3 overall.  Plus Snakes on A Lane rallied from a 7-3 hole to pick up their first win of the season.

Not a lot will be decided tonight, but plenty of shaking out to do at the bottom of Thursday A and a good fight going on for the top three slots in B to avoid the Sunday Shootout.

Game of The Night (early)

Five O’Clock Somewheres (0-10) -3 vs Bad News Spares (0-9): Going outside the box a bit on this one with no top of the division matchups to choose.  After Snakes’ win on Tuesday these are the last 2 winless squads.  Someone will get their first victory and feel like they won a championship.  For the Spares I think it’s been since the Madbotts were in the league that they had that feeling.  They have bowled better this year than before but the league has improved round them.  The 5 O’s actually have an emerging star in Automatic who has been hitting the 200 mark now and then.  They should be able to pull this one out.

Early Games

Lesbowlians (4-6) -3 vs Pinny Candy (3-7): The Lesbowlians came within a frame last week of getting to.500.  They can still get there by winning this week and then next week against the Bad News Spares which would be a first in franchise history.  Tilt-A-Whirl still leads them but they are rolling better across the board than in the past.  Pinny Candy has made a little noise this year and they’d love to stop the Lesbowlians momentum.  Twizzler should be there but Payday is more of a question mark.  They’ll need them both to win tonight.

#9 Leisure Rolls (7-3) -3 vs UREA! (3-7):  Thanks to a hot start including a win over LOS, the 1st year Leisurers are still in the hunt for the division crown even after losing 3 of 4.  They’ll need to win out, and they can’t sleep on this UREA! team.  UREA! has lost a bowloff and a couple 8-7 games so their record is a bit misleading.  T-$ is stroking the ball right now and is actually tied with Busta and Jamaican Jerk for 2nd most 200 games this year.  Nurple has had a breakout year and Steff, Knuckles and J-Bird can all battle.  The Rolls will need their A game to stay in the hunt for the division crown, while UREA tries to escape Sunday.

Bowled & Beautiful (3-7) -3 vs BUI (3-7):  The A standings are pretty much a cluster.  These two teams could finish anywhere from 5th to 10th with only two weeks left.  The loser tonight has almost surely punched a ticket to Sunday, the winner is not safe but lives to fight another day.  B&B has the advantage on paper, and Billy James leads all bowlers in this match.  BUI must be hoping Snapshot pulls a Willis Reed and drops the crutches to bowl with them sometime soon.

Happy Hands (7-4) -3 vs Roll Another (7-3): At 8 pm or thereabouts Happy Hands will become the first team to wrap up their season.  If they can win and get to 8-4, they’ll be able to watch next week with a chance to finish in the top three and make the playoffs directly.  If they lose they are locked in to the Sunday Shootout.  They won last week on improved bowling from Lance Cocksure, and now it’s Captain Sasha Northfield’s turn to lead them.  Roll Another would also like to skip Sunday, but a loss would mean they are stuck there.  A win almost clinches a playoff spot.

Late Games

Lovernauts (7-3) -3 vs Granola Bowlahs (6-4): This could be a fun match.  The Lovernauts are having their best season ever and can clinch a playoff spot with a win.  Rufio has been her usual solid self but has gotten great contributions this year from newcomers like Slugga and Flannel Mayhem.  Well, Flannel Mayhem, meet Electric Mayhem of the Granola Bowlahs.  That’s a lot of mayhem!  The Bowlahs have been without top bowler Bijou for some time, but late addition Razor has responded with a 160 average.  2v2 teammates Rick Vaughn and Colucci Kid both have 18 games played and are separated by a single pin (2927-2926).  Twins!  Hopefully they have a side bet.

#4 L.O.S. (8-2) -5 vs Young & Bowled (4-6):  If Leisure Rolls goes down in the early game, LOS could clinch the division with a win late (which takes the pressure off their showdown next week with SOD, top average team in the league).  They should be fine with Precious returning.  They did just enough last week, getting help from Shithawk especially, to survive a game Linguists team.  Now they’re just working on some stats, like  beerframe percentages and trying to up their career averages when playing green teams in late games in the second half of the month with a crossover game the week after.  Y&B would like to prove to themselves they can knock off a top team before rolling into the playoffs, and a win would help guarantee them an automatic playoff spot.  The all-star troika of Pistol, Senator ITZ and Nugget can be dangerous, they’ll just need Hark, The Cleaner or Samurai to step up as a solid 4th.

#5 Guns of Brighton (7-3) -3 vs Yay? (4-6):  Everytime I want to take Yay seriously as a contender they take a step back. Still, I can’t discount them – not with Yao and Bombpop always capable of 200 averages, Jewdy always capable of a monster game in his series, and all-star Mona Laudley bowling three games.  They haven’t put it together yet this year but they a dangerous team come playoff time.  GOB got a nice win over Leisure last week to stay in the hunt for the division crown.  They’ll be offering tips to Y&B hoping for an upset that keeps their dream alive, and will of course have to take care of their own business.  They should be able to with a team full of all-stars.  They could use the momentum and confidence boost of entering the playoffs on a roll.

Guacabowle (7-3) -1 vs Slaughterhouse 7 (6-4): Just when you count Slaughter out they sneak back in to the picture.  They are probably destined for Sunday Shootout status but could still wreak a little gavoc at the top of the standings and have a sliver of hope with a win and some other games breaking right.  The well-traveled Coco Lopez seems to be thriving in her new role as a team Captain.  She’ll try to lead the team with strikes and sick dance moves in this super friendly battle.  Guacabowle are some of the most upbeat bowlers you’ll ever meet.  They also are pretty good and have a chance to wrap up a playoff spot (and many folks remember them for putting a scare in a top seed before in the playoffs).  This will be a fun one to play in.

#10 TDYOB (5-5) -3 vs Linguists (3-7): The Linguists put a real scare in LOS last week.  They actually had all the momentum after getting 4 in game 2, and lead in game three til they all had splits in the 5th frame.  Kind of deflating.  If they bring that same level this week they could have a shot at a victory.  TDYOB is shorthanded tonight and will welcome Sir Marks-A-Lot (aka Busweiser Joe) for his BoPo debut.  That means his first BoPo mentor will be Thunder….uh oh.  At least he’ll have an average for Draft League next season.  TDYOB should win this one but I think it goes down to the wire.