Long Island Summer Bowling Tour!

Sayville, New York -   

The Long Island Summer Bowling Tour (LISBT) returned to sayville bowl on Friday August 17, 2001. Outstanding scores dominated all 4 divisions for the evening. in addition, similar to the last visit the lisbt made to sayville on july 27, 2001, the evening was highlighted by a perfect game.

Junior handicap division: WIlliam Knoth, patchogue, and matt sulzer, bohemia, battled for the top spot in the 4-game qualifier all night. sulzer led after games 1, 2 and 3 with a very strong performance with games of 219, 243 and 212 scratch (674) that powered him to an 833 w/hdcp. knoth on the other wand was just as impressive firing games of 224, 226 and 212 scratch (662) and a 797 w/hdcp. knoth, finished the qualifying round with a 245(290) to jump into the top spot with sulzer dropping to second after a 167(220). with 3 bowlers advancing to the final round after qualifying, at the conclusion of game 3, position 3 (746 w/hdcp) through 10 (735 w/hdcp) were separated by only 11 pins. when it was all said and done, tara mazer, east northport, came out as the survivor to the final round as she rolled a 226 (269 w/hdcp) giving her an 837/1009 w/hdcp. just missing the cut, noel ocasio, patchogue (821/1005), kevin brochhausen, east northport (802/1002), jon swanson, freeport (772/1000) and justin filippone, bluepoint,(711/999).

in the semi final game, sulzer and mazer would square off. sulzer impressed with a 232/285 w/hdcp while mazer never got untracked and rolled a 138/181 w/hdcp. that would set up the final match vs. #1 seed knoth. as was the case in the prior game vs. mazer, sulzer stayed hot and rolled a 222/275 w/hdcp. knoth stayed respectable with a 187 scratch game, however, his 232 w/hdcp was not enough to win the crown. sulzer had won his first ever lisbt event.

junior scratch division: the junior scratch division was highlighted by outstanding bowling by many of the competitors. 9 of the 12 bowlers were plus for the 4-game qualifier and the cut to the finals was extremely competitive. after 3 games, the top 5 spots were separated by 12 pins, 670-658. with only 3 spots available in the finals, it was going to take a good effort on the part of the eventual survivors to advance. after the smoke had cleared, tom coraci, mastic, via a 257 in game 4, found himself in the top seed with a 922 scratch for 4 games. following coraci was mike wodzinski, east meadow, 881 and kevin o’keefe, brentwood at 875. patrick cooley, east islip 870, neil foresto, commack 869 and alex cavagnaro, north massapequa 864 rounded out the top 6.

in the semi final game, o’keefe was 1 strike better than wodzinski as he defeated the east meadow native 227-213. wodzinski, who earlier on the lisbt on june 15 won the junior scratch division in north levittown, was making his 3^rd  trip to the finals in 4 attempts on the lisbt. with the win, o’keefe put himself in a position to win the title vs. a very rested and very confident coraci.

tom coraci can be best described as entertaining. the charismatic young right handed bowler does not lack confidence. witty and always ready to go, the youngster jumped out of the gate in the championship game in such a manner that his opponent had to know he meant business. perhaps with the grind of the 4^th game in qualifying and the semifinal game vs. wodzinski, the talented o’keefe was showing signs of fatigue. coraci on the other hand would have none of that. coraci would strike early and often as he easily defeated o’keefe 245-169 to take home his second lisbt crown. Coraci also won the sayville event on July 27!

adult handicap division: with 27 entries in this division, the top 6 would cash and the top 5 would advance to the brackets finals. the top 3 bowlers in the qualifying round broke the 1000 mark including handicap. finishing first in qualifying was richard berezein, selden at 869/1085 w/hdcp. second was matt romano, holbrook 850/1030 and at third was steve kelly, islip 888/1000. also advancing to the brackets finals was anne herd, bethpage 752/984 who ironically made the finals at sayville on july 27 and seth drusin, holbrook at 823/979. cashing for 6^th place was william taveras, central islip 804/956. just missing was steve kuehne, farmingville 818/954.

in the brackets elimination round, in game 1, herd 176/234 w/hdcp defeated kelly 185/213 while romano 171/216 eliminated drusin 160/199. herd and romano would advance to the semifinals.

in the semifinal match, both bowlers stayed very competitive. however it was romano who threw the extra strikes late in the game as he defeated herd 204/249 w/hdcp to 175/233. romano was in the championship game vs. berezein.

both berezein and romano were outstanding throughout the night up to this point. berezein qualified first by throwing some very impressive scores. the 170 average bowler who “never bowled like this before” strung together scratch games of 208,193,236 and 232 to secure first place. romano however was just as impressive. in addition to his 204 scratch game in the semis vs. herd, romano put together games of 188,245,239 and 178 to lock up the #2 seed in qualifying. both bowlers seemed to be geared for a showdown. however, as is the case with many #1 bowlers this summer, who have an automatic bye to the final game, the extra rest proved to be helpful. berezein came out strong and attacked at the word go. he finished with a 240 scratch that catapulted him to a 292 w/hdcp. romano however had untimely opens with some bad breaks along the way and finished with a disappointing 146/191. for berezein, the victory was both sweet and humble. “this is unreal. usually i am up and down, up and down” he repeated. “i really am in a state of shock. i never imagined i could win.”

adult scratch division: the adult scratch division turned dejavu. on july 27, the lisbt first visit to sayville, rich wagner, east islip thrilled the crowd with a 300 game. As was the case on july 27, perfection would be present this past friday at sayville. steve garcia, east islip, rolled his gem in the 3^rd game of qualifying. garcia would use that 300 to vault into first place after game 3 and he remained there at the conclusion of qualifying rolling a very strong 959 4 game series. just about the entire field in the adult scratch division was remarkable as well. 20 of the 23 bowlers on this night would be plus for the 4 games. that is truly an amazing number. in addition to garcia, 4 others were to cash and advance into the brackets finals. the only difference in the standings at the conclusion of game 3 and the conclusion of game 4 was placement of the bowlers who were in positions 1 through 5. georGe stephens, lawrence at 952 went from 3^rd to 2^nd. charlie lombardo, greenlawn at 951 went from 4^th to 3^rd. scott teitler, patchogue at 948 went from 5^th to 4^th while matt cabble, miller place at 944 went from 2^nd to 5^th. finishing 24 pins off the mark at 920 was ed hawkIns, bay shore.

in the brackets elimination round, the best scoring match of the night saw stephens defeated cabble 254-246 while lombardo defeated teitler 234-208. that set the stage for stephens and lombardo to battle it out for the right to face garcia for the championship.

it should be pointed out that earlier in the evening, charlie lombardo, while on the same pair with steve garcia in qualifying, bowled a 290. perhaps with the possibility of facing his longtime friend garcia in the finals, or perhaps just the fact that lombardo was gunning for his second title on the lisbt (centereach july 6), he came out strong and exploited a now struggling stephens. lombardo wasted no time and went on to defeat stephens 227-177 to advance to the finals vs. garcia.

how close are steve garcia and charlie lombardo? to best describe the relationship would be to describe the best of best of friends. they have been doubles partners in the hotshot doubles league at east islip bowl for many years now. it is safe to assume that if garcia is in a league bowling, wherever the league may be, lombardo is right there with him. and to even make matters more interesting, they are partners in the monday doubles league at sayville bowl in the summer. saying they know the house and know each other would be an understatement.

despite the respect they both have for each other, both are competitive. neither one of them caring who wins this match would not be fair to the other. however, even with that said, the best of friends agreed to split the prize money right down the middle regardless of the outcome. please however, do not get weepy, because the two of them were going to bowl for bragging rights and that alone could get ugly in itself. for the record, lombardo went on to defeat garcia in the final game, 240-224. in doing so, lombardo became the first two time winner in the Adult scratch division on the lisbt. to the crowd of spectators this match were to draw, the final match indeed was entertaining and enjoyable. everyone had a great time watching these two go “at it”.

what an evening at sayville!

great job by all bowlers who competed!   

A total of 70 entries participated in the event. Next on tap? PORT JEFF BOWL, August 24 at 8:45pm. Hope to see you there! 

Thanx for all the support. 

Final Standings after Qualifying

Payout