Long Island Summer Bowling Tour!

"And now for the Happy Recap...."

- In Memory Of Long Time NY Mets Announcer, Bob Murphy -

Click Here For A2Z Record Highs Page!

commack, august 6, 2004

An overflow field of bowlers hit the lanes this past friday night at commack Vets Lanes. With no other words that need to be said, "and now for the happy Recap"

adam sher, commack simply knows how to take care of business on the home turf. competing in the junior scratch division this past friday night at commack vets lanes, sher, competing in his home house, rolled an opening 831 3-game front 3 series that included back to back a 299 in game 2 and a 297 in game 3. sher added a 258 in game 4 of the qualifying round giving him a total of 854 for the back 3 as well. the 4-game block of 1089 rolled by sher set an all time record for scratch series during qualifying at any level on the a2Z, adult or junior. it is safe to assume he qualified as the number one seed for the night! :o)

Former champion tommy scherrer, holtsville had an outstanding night as well, yet was overlooked simply because of the show that sher put on last friday. scherrer rolled a very impressive 943 during qualifying that netted him into the shotgun round as the number 2 seed. also advancing into the shotgun round are former champions on the a2Z in Matt Kingsepp, miller place, 884 good for third and robert matz, coram 844 seeded fourth. scherrer would go on to defeat kingsepp and matz in the "one and done" game thus setting up his match vs. Sher in the championship game. Nick Windschuh, ronkonkoma earned scholarship dollars as well.

as it turns out, the results of the shotgun game turned out to be a formality. after all, adam sher needed to compete vs. someone in order to compete for the championship. this night however belonged to sher and there really wasn't anybody could do about it except to sit back and admire the artwork. sher started the championship game where he left off during qualifying. while scherrer stayed close for 3 frames, sher continued to throw strike after strike and easily defeated scherrer 269-213. for sher, it was his second consecutive win on the summer tour. with his earnings for the night of $155.00, sher has pocketed $337.00 during the last two weeks in scholarship money. money that will be well spent as he attends stony brook university this september as a freshman.

great job by adam and all the competitors of the junior scratch division!

can john porter, bay shore be stopped? the intense young man won for the fourth time on the a2Z/LISBT 2004 as he defeated Mike "rugs" Ruggiero, smithtown in the junior handicap division.

porter defeated kristen kingsepp, miller place (making her second consecutive trip into the shotgun round) and former a2Z junior champion aaron ryan, selden in the shotgun round setting up his match vs. "House Mouse" and number one seed Ruggiero. Ruggiero is a member of the commack HS boys varsity bowling team and was a teammate of junior champion adam sher this past year. kevin brochhausen, east northport while not advancing to round 2 earned scholarship dollars as well.

porter shook off a "rugged" start from himself, (pun intended!) and finished the match with 5 consecutive strikes while ruggiero hit trouble late en route to championship number 4 for 2004. porter now has an opportunity to tie and possibly break the record of 5 championship in the same year. the record is held by mike wodzinski, east meadow, junior scratch division. wodzinski established the record in the summer of 2003. with 4 stops left on the summer tour, the record is within reach. kudos to john. the young man is having a marvelous summer. 

great job by all competitors in the junior handicap division.

say this much for matt sulzer, bohemia. when he is on top of his game, give the man 3 1/2 stars. add the other 1/2 star for dramatics. 

competing in the adult scratch division this past friday night sulzer outdistanced his opponents based on the strength of his back-3 782 series. sulzer claimed the number one spot finishing with a 994 thus earning a bye into the championship match and an opportunity to win title number 2 on the A2Z/LISBT 2004. earlier this year at north levittown, sulzer rolled a 4-game qualifier of 1003 en route to the championship that night as well. his 1003 is now tied for 9th all time in that category.

qualifying into the shotgun round in order of placement was TC Cunningham, amityville 967, steve frazzetto, st james 937 and rich debernardo, smithtown 929. debernardo was making his second finals appearance (Smithtown) of 2004 as well. the shotgun game was won by frazzetto with debernardo finishing 3rd for the night and cunningham finishing 4th.

the championship game of sulzer vs. frazzetto was perhaps the most exciting finals match of the year in any one division. both bowlers displaying passion shot after shot came out firing on all cylinders. each bowler however not being able to put the other away. it wasn't until frame 10 did an unexpected break occur in favor of sulzer.

frazzetto, finishing first in the 10th, threw 2 flush hits, as all his hits were in the championship game, on his first two balls in the 10th. however, on his fill ball, frazzetto threw a very untimely 8 count giving him a total of 244 for the night. in the process, frazzetto left the door wide open for sulzer to win the championship game. the 2 pins left by frazzetto now meant that sulzer would need 2 strikes of his own plus 7 count to tie or 8 count on his final ball to win the match as opposed to filling minimum of 29 to win. a huge difference to any scratch bowler. sulzer didn't waste the opportunity.

sulzer nailed his first two shots in the 10th and got the count he needed as he went on to defeat frazzetto 247-244. it was the second title for sulzer on the summer tour.

turning to the adult handicap division, this division turned out to be the most competitive for the evening. with 57 entries for the night, it would be in the best interest of any bowler to bring the "A" game to the lanes that night if indeed one had plans to make the cash list let alone make it into the finals. and speaking of "A" games, 3 former champions of the LISBT decided to bring that game into commack for the evening.

former A2Z/LISBT champion vinny zambito, shirley topped off the list with his exceptional 946/1102 w hdcp series. zambito rolled a back end 3 of 742 to help his cause. seeded second was newbie ben weil, queens at 1070. two former champions placed 3rd and 4th respectively. former champion and "Major" event champion (New years day 2004) arthur ryan, selden was seeded 3rd at 1053 while holiday bowl I, 2003 champion (North Levittown) bill cocinski, coram held down the last spot into the playoff round at 1041.

the shotgun game was a ton of fun with weil, ryan and gocinski holding nothing back. all three were on top of the game. however, at the conclusion of the "I win...I'm in" game, it would be weil that would survive the slugfest and earn his way into the finals vs the rested zambito. officially gocinski would finish 3rd for the night while ryan would finish 4th. what was about to transpire in the championship game though is something we have seen in the past on the A2Z/LISBT on so many occasions in the past. it involves the "in the wings" bowler waiting for his opponent to be determined. better known as the number 1 seed.

has been the case so many times in the past, the bowler that earns the number one seed and gain the bye in the shotgun round simply seems to lose the edge while waiting in the wings. the bowler that advances from the shotgun game is able to continue his momentum. this past friday night would be no different.

weil was ready from the get go and he saved his best for last. while zambito and weil stayed even early, weil then ambushed zambito with a flurry of strikes starting in the 4th frame and never looked back after that. zambito in fact was throwing the ball well, however, the breaks were just not going his way. by frame 7, the match was all but a formality in terms of final score. zambito finished with a very respectable 235 with handicap. however, weil finished with a 327 with handicap and earned the title.

Commack Vets Qualifying Highlights (Scratch Series Order)

Junior Handicap Division qualifying highlights (200+/800+):

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Junior Scratch Division qualifying Highlights (200+/800+):

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Adult handicap Division qualifying Highlights (200+/800+):

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adult Scratch Division qualifying Highlights (200+/800+):

Recapping the action for commack:

Adult Scratch Division:  

shotgun round: steve frazzetto, st james 224 defeated rich debernardo, smithtown 201 and TC Cunningham, amityville 180

Championship game: matt sulzer, bohemia defeated  frazzetto  247-244

Adult handicap division: 

shotgun round: ben weil, queens 273 defeated bill gocinski, coram 246 and arthur ryan, selden 239

Championship Game: weil defeated vinny zambito, shirley 327-235

Junior hdcp division:

shotgun round: john porter, bay shore 269 defeated kristen kingsepp, miller place 234 and aaron ryan, selden 205  

Championship Game: porter defeated mike ruggiero, smithtown 219-204

Junior Scratch division:

shotgun round: tommy scherrer, holtsville 203 defeated robert matz, coram 196 and matt kingsepp, miller place 182 

Championship Game: adam sher, commack Defeated scherrer 269-213

a total of 130 Bowlers participated. 

Next Stop: port jeff bowl, 631-473-3300

august 13, 2004 8:30 PM  4 - game Format!

(Register Here For port jeff  - CLICK!)

300 game incentives for port jeff !

Adults: $89.00 plus $1.00 per adult entry!

Juniors: $276.00 plus $1.00 per junior entry!

The real stars of the A2Z! (Part 2 of a 2 part special!)

see part 1 of our salute to the gals behind the scenes by clicking here!

Wendy Drusin	Donna Zagorski Dark Blouse :o)

Behind the scenes of every A2Z/LISBT, is the hidden effort of our scoring room gals. a2Z is lucky to have two very committed individuals that work extremely hard to ensure the bowlers are getting results as fast as possible and in addition, doing the finances as well.

wendy drusin, holbrook has been our "money lady" for the past three seasons. constantly "going through the numbers" and taking care of the finances for the evening, wendy is responsible for maintaining the bank, paying the house, reconciling the brackets money and preparing all the money envelopes that are given out each week to the adult bowlers. in addition, wendy prepares all the finances for the scholarship money as well for the junior bowlers that is then handed over to the long island junior bowlers association. wendy arrives each week at an a2z tournament 2-hours prior to the start of each tournament in order to prepare for the night. wendy takes her job with a2Z very seriously and enjoys being with the bowlers. wendy's husband seth and daughter cheryl compete occasionally on the A2Z as well.

donna zagorski, east patchogue has been with a2Z since day 1 working the computer entering the names of the bowlers and in addition entering the scores for all the bowlers that compete each and every week. donna works very close to our score runners each week to ensure the correct scores are entered and posted as quickly as possible. donna also downloads all the scores from the tournament for the purpose of transferring the tournament data to our brackets database. donna arrives at all the tournaments 2 hours in advance in order to get a head start on the tournament for that evening. donna loves being around the bowlers and looks forward to every a2Z each friday during the summer.

well, there you have it. our "gals" behind the scenes. with the conclusion of this two part mini-series, we hope every bowler on the a2Z would just say a kind word to our gals, Laurie, denise, Ginny, Wendy and Donna in order to just let them know how appreciated they are to the A2Z.

Great Job ladies. you deserve all the credit you can get!

Steve "A" and Poppa "Z"! thanks so much!

Standings after Qualifying