In their first game since their first win of the season, the Varsity Bowling team played an away game against the Mifflinburg County Wildcats on January 12. While the Wildcats swept the Rams in the match, the Rams came close to winning the second game.

Even though the team was missing some players in the match, head coach Joel Logan felt that the team played decently considering how many players were unable to play.

In the first game, Logan’s lineup was: senior Michael Zabkowski, junior Colt Merrifield, senior Karen Burns, senior Tyler Wiland, and senior Takoda Stike.

Burns and Stike led the way in terms of scoring in that first game, Burns with a 172 and Stike with a 171. Also, Merrifield scored a 127, Wiland contributing a score of 124, and Zabkowski with a 108.

Furthermore, Logan mentioned that making spares was a struggle for some of the players in the first of three games and were the difference between winning and losing some of the games.

For the second game, Logan substituted senior Jeffrey Fisher in for Zabkowski.

At the end of the second game, Stike had the Rams’ best score with 188, and Merrifield also contributed with a 180 score. Burns bowled for a score of 161, Wiland with a 159 score, and Fisher accounted for 146.

Out of all three games, the second was the Rams’ best and the closest between the two teams. The Wildcats only won the second game by a score of 872-834.

“Tough game, we lost by 38 pins. There were three players who did not make a [strike/spare] in the tenth frame and that was the difference between winning and losing,” Logan said.

Due to injury, Stike was unable to compete in the third game. Therefore, Logan substituted Zabkowski back in for the third game.

In that third game, Fisher had the Rams’ best score, which was 166. Merrifield bowled a score of 153, Wiland contributed a 149 score, and Burns and Zabkowski both had a score of 144.

Additionally, Mifflinburg bowler Eli Hannon came close to a perfect game, but his perfect bid ended in the tenth frame with a score of 279. Another Wildcat bowler had a score of 224. Those terrific scores for the Wildcats helped them go on to win the third game by a score of 1,023-756.

Logan said, “The 279 and 224 games were fun to watch, not so much fun to be on the receiving end of however. I was proud of the sportsmanship our players showed when they congratulated the other team.”

Looking back at the match as a whole, Burns had the best Rams series score of 477, but Merrifield also had a decent series score of 460. Stike would have had a higher series score had he not been out for a game.

Coming into this match, Logan made a comment about not really knowing much about the team that the Rams were facing. However, with that being said before the match, Logan said, “I am watching individuals grow as team players. Every match someone surprises me with poise under pressure. The fact that two starters who consistently perform stronger were absent for the match and we still came close speaks volumes for our team. Also, we are no longer dependent on a few good players because the team has several.”

Logan also made a comment in regards to the fact that a team of fairly new bowlers are challenging competitive teams should make the team proud because he is proud to be the team’s coach.

That loss against the Wildcats dropped the Rams’ record to 1-3 on the season. While the Wildcats won this round, the Rams do get another chance to beat them this year on February 9.

The Rams also play Janus School and York Tech again in the final three games of the season.