If Mitch Cumstein was the clear MVP of Tuesday night, Thursday saw a lot of heroes. Herb’n was solid with a 244-254 as BEER held off a game Hooligans squad, and Biscuit Wheels had a nice 213 as Wrecking Balls upset FC Portland, but I think I’d hand the top award to Kelly Kabowlski who went over 200 to take top point in game 3 as SOD came back from 7-3 down to edge My Balls 8-7 (Burners also had a thrilling comeback from 7-3 down, winning 8-7 by a single pin). Three big games tonight to finalize the quarterfinals in A. Onto the lines.
#2 LOS (-3) vs #18 Guacabowle: This is gonna be a good one, a Thursday v Thursday matchup. Guac has knocked off LOS back in the time that it was a huge upset. Now they come in as a powerful opponent ready to go toe to toe. Mitch Cumstein has been on fire and certainly capable of another 700 series. Whitman and Cilantro had solid nights in the win over T-Club and Sparetime and Bonita are usually rock solid. Double Cheese has learned to love his time away from the lanes but when he’s back he still has the Cheese edge. LOS is a lean 4-player squad, with Putt Putt, offseason pickup Mama D and Strike Dancer filling out the roster. I always think 4 -player teams have an advantage as they can settle into a groove. Guac is feisty and wants this but I think the waves of highs scores LOS puts up will hold off the challengers.
#7 Sharks and Strikes (-5) vs #10 BUI: Duke Thunderwood would tell you there’s a storm coming. Unfortunately for BUI, I think he’s just seeing visions of Dick Du Jour’s Storm Astrophysix piling up strikes. DDJ and crew had a 6-5 season, with all five losses to BEER and Oddballs. Weird. They’re on a mission to get back to the finals and I think they take the first step tonight, flabongos pouring. BUI will try the ‘where we bowl one we bowl all’ philosophy that is their trademark, but Snapshot’s crew will need a lot of things to break their way. They do have a playoff win over Sharks so their confidence is high, but ultimately Sharks are too deep (state).
#3 Oddballs (-1) vs #14 Guns of Brighton: If you like your games on the old side this is the one for you. The Oddballs looked just fine in the seeding round without Cerrano. They’ll runa tight lineup of Twisted Tea, Brooklyn, Nugget and HBK, with a possible Mini Guinea sighting. That’s a strong group. G.O.B. will have answers and are also running a small squad with just Holden, Squeaky, Splinter and Seatown I believe. Holden’s hoping for a playoff run to erase the memories of his regular season bets, and Splinter hoping to go one round further than the team he left. I think it goes down to the wire but ultimately Oddballs put up a couple more monster games than GOB.
A hearty congrats to SoD and Kelly Kabowlski on their win last night – they came out of the gate in game three with one thing on their mind and accomplished it! Good luck to ya! – Lefty.