MATTYDALE – Four long weeks after it dominated the Section III tournament, the Baldwinsville girls bowling team went after the state Division I title at a venue close to home.
The Bees entered Sunday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships as a favorite to do well, given the way it had lapped the sectional field Feb. 13 at Flamingo Bowl.
Now, at Strike-N-Spare Lanes, B’ville would indeed beat most of the field, overcoming a slow start to rise all the way to fourth place by the time the six-game tournament had ended.
Whatever the cause, the Bees’ opening game was rough. No one shot better than a 169 from Julia Speich and, at 764, B’ville stood eighth in the nine-team field.
Perking up in the second games, the Bees got a 930, and then it peaked with a 1,069 in the third game, the best by any of the teams in any single game all tournament long.
Jenna Speich led the way with a 256, Amelia Ponto adding a 223 as Maddy Hass earned a 215 and Lauren Gulich put together her best game of the day, a 204.
Moving to the break at 2,763, B’ville now was in fourth, with Section I’s North Rockland setting the pace thank to an exact pinfall of 3,000.
Even with a good third-game 986 that pulled it into third place, the Bees could not make up ground, North Rockland getting a 1,007 led by a 247 from eventual individual champion Victoria Varano.
The last two games saw B’ville fall to scores of 821 and 845, but at 5,415 it still finished fourth. North Rockland, with 5,874, earned the state championship, 185 pins ahead of Longwood (Section X) as Orchard Park (Section VI) finished third in 5,493.
Individually, All five of the top Bees finished within the top 25, led by Jenna Speich, whose 1,134 included that 256 and a 203 in the second game that put her in 14th place.
Ponto was right behind, 15th in 1,124 as she also had games of 207 and 199, while Hass was 18th at 1,080, peaking with her 226 in the fourth game. Julia Speich had a steady 1,056 with every game between 164 and 190 as Gulich, who had a 201 in the fourth game, was 24th with 1,002.
