Match #1 -- C. JEFFERS vs. BARTRAM
Both of these teams have struggled out of the gate with every member of both teams suffering a drop in average early on aside from Bartram’s anchor Cordell Galbecka, who has been away all three weeks. The Bartram team does have two wins and are mostly being held down by a 29-2 loss in Week 2, but last week was leadoff Colton Harris’ best of the season and another solid week for Derek Sanderson, so they seem to be headed in the right direction. The C. Jeffers team will hope to get out of their funk this week, otherwise they could be in trouble.
Key Matchup: Tim Hooper vs. Jeston Bartram The real key to this matchup could be at the anchor position with uncertainty around whether Cordell will play and an injury to Corey Chaikowski of C. Jeffers’ team. Without knowing who the spares are, the match could come down to whether or not Tim can keep up with Jeston in the third position as the two teams are similarly matched otherwise.
Author’s Pick: Team Bartram
Match #2 -- COOK vs. STEVENSON
Team Cook finally nabbed themselves a win last week and may be starting to live up to their potential, but they face a team that just put up the biggest scores of any in the league this year in Team Stevenson, which shot a 3838 block in Week 3. In what has become a common theme for this team, Team Stevenson has the edge at the top of the lineup but Team Cook has the edge at the bottom - at least on paper, although if the Stevenson pairing of Jayden Nickerson and Dylan Stevenson plays like they did last week, that advantage might evaporate.
Key Matchup: Trevor Cook vs. Dylan Stevenson It’s a big matchup between two of the top three scores (excluding spares) in the league last week, with Dylan coming off of an 1148 quad and Trevor coming off of a 1099. Team Stevenson is one team that is strong enough with their top-3 to match up well with Team Cook, so the anchor position could well determine this match.
Author’s Pick: Team Cook
Match #3 -- ORNE vs. B. JEFFERS
It seems the B. Jeffers squad is getting the tough part of their schedule out of the way early, having just put up a 19-12 win in last week’s biggest matchup against Team Youzwa. In a big matchup of the 1st vs. 4th place teams, they now face the league leaders in Team Orne, who have an extremely well balanced lineup especially considering that David Wastle is a better bowler than his current 192 average would suggest. Tyson Nelson was more like himself in Week 3 and will hope to continue that this week.
Key Matchup: Darren Maxwell vs. Tyson Nelson Both of these teams seem to have good lineups all the way down. You may be able to find a small advantage for Team Orne at second, but they are quite evenly matched overall, so this one may once again come down to the anchor battle between two highly-drafted bowlers.
Author’s Pick: Team Orne
Match #4 -- ENNS vs. GELARDI
It was a bump in the road for previously-unbeaten Team Gelardi in Week 3 as they dropped a close, 17-14 match to Team Rodych by 6 points in team total. Dwayne had his first bad week of the season and was swept by Matt Rodych in the anchor position, so he’ll be determined to come back strong, but he will be up against Friday Night veteran and legend Glen Howarth. Team Enns was on the wrong end of Team Stevenson’s league-high 3838 quad last week so look for them, too, to come out strong. This should be a great match all around.
Key Matchup: Craig Enns vs. Robbie Hendrickson It’s a matchup in the third position of two bowlers who are both capable of averaging more than they have in the early going. If one of these two can put up numbers more like we are used to seeing out of them, that could be a big advantage.
Author’s Pick: Team Gelardi
Match #5 -- YOUZWA vs. LAMONICA
Two young teams captained by good friends will face off against each other in a matchup between the 6th and 7th-place teams. It’s hard to find a weakness in Team LaMonica as they have one of the top leadoffs in the league so far and a very strong 2-3-4, and that edge at leadoff may give them the edge here. Having said that, Colton has been on fire and Chloe has the second-highest third position average in the league, giving Youzwa a 3-4 that’s tough to beat. Expect this to be another fun, high scoring, and close match.
Key Matchup: Colton Youzwa vs. Sam Gelardi Colton’s star is rising fast especially after a big run in the Autumn Open last week and we know that Sam is one of the province’s top bowlers, giving us a matchup here that could feature some fireworks. Sam has struggled this year, but this could be the matchup that wakes him up.
Author’s Pick: Team LaMonica
Match #6 -- HURD vs. RODYCH
Team Hurd is rolling along this year and haven’t lost yet, sitting in 2nd place in the league and up against Team Rodych, who just nabbed their first win of the season last week. Matt Rodych will be one key to this matchup, up against #1 overall pick Brett Hendrickson. He’s got 2243 to show for his last 8 games, with the league’s highest score in Week 2 and third-highest score in Week 3 - it’s jumped him up to the #3 average in the league. Fresh off a big win against one of the league’s big fish in Team Gelardi, the Rodych team will aim to do it again. Team Hurd’s biggest advantage will be their captain Chad in the second spot with Kevin Naugler’s hot start to the season - if he continues to play well, they will be tough for anyone to beat.
Key Matchup: Ryan Bannerman vs. Hailey Roberts The 3-4 positions on Team Rodych will give them a chance if they can avoid falling behind at the top, but Hailey and Carter Schade might be in tough against Ryan and captain Chad Hurd. Chad in the second position is going to be tough, so this might come down to what Hailey can do at the top of the lineup.
Author’s Pick: Team Hurd
Match #7 -- DEVENNEY vs. KING
The Devenney team has been up and down this year and last week was a rough one - although things were looking up a bit in their last three games. They simply need to avoid the one bad game they have had in their losses so far. The team on the other side is struggling as well, currently in 15th, although last week they got a big week from Karen Armstrong (1039) to push her back into the anchor position. What they need next is for their captain Wayne to emerge from his funk. You give the advantage to Team King on paper, but we also know that Holly will shoot better and that could be a shot in the arm for Team Devenney.
Key Matchup: Mike Devenney vs. Wayne King Look at those two names! It’s been a tough start to the year for Wayne and on the other hand, a mostly good start for Mike outside of a few games. In the case of both Wayne on Team King and Holly on Team Devenney, it’s only a matter of time before they have their breakout nights. If Mike can outduel Wayne in the third position tonight, it will give the Devenney team a good shot.
Author’s Pick: Team King
Match #8 -- LOURENCO vs. COUSINS
What we have seen so far this season is that lineups with some consistency and strength throughout are performing very well, and both of those teams theoretically have that, although they have yet to play up to their potential so far. Last week was a tough one for both Gillian LaMonica and Cindy Cousins of Team Cousins, but they did get their leadoff Shannon Pruden for the first time all season. Ethan had a slow start to his Week 3 but picked it up in his last two games to end up getting close to 1000 for the night (962). There are a lot of matchups this week that seem tight on paper and this is another one - the two teams are very close in the second and third spots while Team Lourenco has a slight edge at anchor.
Key Matchup: Sam Hunt vs. Shannon Pruden Shannon has been a pretty consistent and quality leadoff bowler since joining the Friday night league and having her in the lineup is a nice boost for Team Cousins. Whoever can start their team off strong will give their team an advantage in this one.
Author’s Pick: Team Lourenco
