Week 3 Recap

Game 1: 231
Game 2: 203
Game 3: 245
Series: 679
Week Avg: 226
Season Avg: 218

We finally had the whole team together this week and our opponent had four of five bowlers so we expected to be in for a long, but competitive night of action.

The lanes played pretty close to where they were the week before; however, most everyone was playing left of the second arrow and so I really only had to contend and adapt to whatever changes my ball made to the oil conditions. I struck right away and spared in the second frame before shooting the next six in a row. In the ninth frame I left a 4-7-10 and missed my mark on the spare attempt for a big open leading into the tenth frame. I managed to spare and strike in the tenth for a 231 game, but the open foundation frame really stung.

Throughout the second game I was struggling to find a new line that would carry. After starting with a double I came in high in the third frame and started to leave single pins. I scattered a few strikes in the game to keep within striking distance. I needed good pin count in the tenth frame to pull off a team win and a solid pocket hit left the 8-10 split. That is already the second game this year that was within my reach and I let it slip away.

The last game was much stronger. I was not going to let that second game happen again. Two members of the opposing team rolled off one game so they could leave early, so there were seven of us on the pair and the pace picked up a bit, which had the potential to screw things up. Luckily it didn't. I doubled, spared, and then threw my second six-bagger of the night. I left the 7-pin on my first ball of the tenth frame and another errant spare attempt officially cost me a 700 series.

I left the center pretty disappointed, but the drive home gave me some time to realize that I've reached a point in my game where I can be really upset about leaving three opens and averaging 226 in a night. This was the first time I ever came close to throwing back to back 700 series and I really wanted that. It was also unfortunate that one open fell in the ninth frame and two others came in the tenth. If any of those come earlier in the game I may have reached 700 and possibly won the team a game.

The season is still very young, but I'm getting a little concerned that my mental game suffered slightly over the summer. I spent a lot of time working on the details, but I really only threw five regular games and didn't have a chance to get in a pressure situation. Last year if the game was in reach I could go out there and get the job done, but so far that hasn't been the case this year. Hopefully it will come back to me as the season progresses.