Wahconah Bowlers Edge McCann Tech Behind White and Wood
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- Alex White and Amber Wood Tuesday led the Wahconah Blue to a 2-1 win over McCann Tech that allowed Wahconah to keep up in a three-team pack atop the Berkshire County High School Bowling League standings.
It was a competitive day all the way around at Greylock Bowl and Golf, where Taconic and league-leading Drury also earned 2-1 victories. The only 3-0 decision was earned by second-place Pittsfield, which took on rebuilding and winless Mount Greylock.
Wahconah Blue roared out to a big win in its opening game, taking a 9-1 decision from the Hornets to earn the first point of the match.
Elliot Tribble, Austin Doyle, Wood and White each won his or her head-to-head matchup, and Wahconah took the total pin point by a solid 1049-906 margin.
White led the way with a 245 while Wood rolled a 219 in the opener -- the two best games all day for a boy and a girl.
In the second game, both teams’ scores dropped, and McCann Tech got wins from Seth Ivas, who went 2-0 in head-to-heads, Colby Andrews and Jared Blondin (189-205--394) to earn a 6-5 win, evening the match at one point apiece.
White, meanwhile, matched his 245 from the first game to get the day’s best series, 490.
“If you start off strong and have a good game in the first game, you have to keep your mentality the same going into the next game,” White said. “You have to reset and think that you aren’t ahead. If you think you’re ahead, you can get a bad game.
“But if you just hit the reset button, you can back with another big game.”
After tying the first two games, the teams went to the best-of-three Baker format games, where teams of five alternate frames (each bowling two frames) for the decisive point.
Anchored by Wood (frames 4 and 9) and White (frames 5 and 10), who threw a combined eight strikes between them in the first two Baker games, Wahconah won those contests by scores of 196-135 and 232-201.
“We excel in the Bakers because we’ve been together for so long,” White said. “We have four seniors and one sophomore. Us four seniors, going at, we feed off each other, feed off the energy that we have together and just have fun.”
The other two 2-1 matches were decided going into the Baker games.
Mya Duhamel (194-146--340) led Taconic a couple of close wins over the Wahconah Grey. She and Hunter Golin each won a pair of head-to-head contests (which count two points each) to help Taconic win by scores of 6-5 and 7-4.
Wahconah Grey came back to win the first two Baker games.
Drury won its two games by scores of 9-2 and 7-4.
Olivia Mazzacco led the Blue Devils with the day’s best series among the girls, a 411, winning both her head-to-head matches with scores of 218 and 193.
Lee, which was led by Adam Dingman (223-204-427), won the first two Bakers to take a point.
Pittsfield cruised to wins by scores of 11-0 and 9-2 against Mount Greylock, which was playing short-handed with just four bowlers available.
Colby Rooney led the Generals with a 461 series (243-218).
Antoinette Dykes picked up a head-to-head win for the Mounties, rolling a 164 in her second game.
The league has two more regular season dates remaining, both at Ken’s Bowl in Pittsfield starting on Friday. It then will play a week of positional matches at Cove Lanes in Great Barrington before going back to Ken’s for the county championship on Feb. 28.
“We’re looking forward to county’s and state’s,” White said. “Those are two big tournaments. It looks like Drury is going to run away with the [regular season] right now. But in county’s, that’s where it all resets, and you have a chance to take the title.”
Standings: 1. Drury 16-2; 2. Pittsfield 15-3; 3. Wahconah Blue 16-5; 4. Taconic 10-8; 5. Lee 9-9; 6. McCann Tech 8-10; 7. Wahconah Grey 7-14; 8. Mount Everett 3-15; 9. Mount Greylock 0-18.