Alex Groff |
The Versailles Boys traveled to Woodcrest Lanes in Union City for 2 matches Saturday, January 11th against Minster and Russia. Both teams are much improved this year. “Minster is much improved as well as Russia, so we need to bowl our best today or one or both of these teams could sneak up on us.” Davidson told the team. The first match was against Minster. The Tigers came out strong by rolling a nice game of 995 to the Wildcats 862. The second game the Wildcats improved to 898, however, the Tigers remained steady by rolling a nice 958 game. With this being a double match in one day, the matches are shortened to only 2 Baker games. The Tigers continued to struggle a little in the Baker game by rolling 188 to 166 to Minster’s 125 and 181. They won the match with a final score of 2307 to 2066.
Leading scorers for the Tiger were Michael Davidson 257-215, Dustin Ruhe 216, Alex Groff 206 and Zach Marshal 193. “Our first match we were pretty steady throughout and I was pleased with how the guys bowled. However, we still need to improve on our Baker Games as this has been somewhat of a struggle at times this year,” said Coach Davidson.
The second match was set to be a good one with Russia. “This team has improved a lot this year from the start of the year. I just has this feeling inside that we were going to have to let it all out for this match,” stated Davidson. As the match started and progressed half way through the 1st game, this feeling was becoming a reality. Russia was on fire and was about 80 pins or so ahead of the Tigers. The Tigers kept plugging away the 1st game and finished very strong getting back to within 7 pins, 953-960.
“I felt as the oil pattern broke down, we were going to have the advantage if we made the correct adjustments and executed properly. After their start, to pull back within 7 pins was a testament to these guys determination,” said Davidson. The second game was not much different and the score was very close throughout the game. The 9th and 10th frame was a pretty good one for the Tigers as they pulled ahead and won that game 987-920. 60 pins was the lead for the Tigers with 2 Bakers to go. The Tigers came out firing the 1st game and pretty much sealed the win with a 235-163 win. The second game they remained hot and won that one 212-190. The final score ended up Versailles 2387 to Russia’s 2233.
Leading scorers for the Tigers was Michael Davidson 245-247, Alex Groff 217 and Ben Ahrens 211. Leading scorers for Russia was Nick Bohman 224-205, Michael Bohman 221-214, Nick Colby 204 and Cody Heaton 190. “This match is only going to help us going into the last 4 weeks. We probably have the toughest schedule in the conference to finish the season: Lima Central Catholic, Coldwater, Wapakoneta and Ottawa Glandorf. We control our own destiny. If we win out, we will at least share the conference title. There is no doubt in my mind these guys can do it,” said Davidson.