Striking out.

The team lost their third match in a row, a few days ago.

North Bullitt High School won five out of the seven possible points, from the Feb. 17 game. Bullitt East placed ninth, in the Crimson Classic tournament. The team plans to improve by becoming more consistent, and by bringing more confidence to the matches.

North Bullitt won the first game (524-454), the second game (562-489), and the third game (483-463), and then, Bullitt East won the fourth game (627-610). North Bullitt won the first baker’s match, 202-177, and then the second baker’s match, 177-101, causing Bullitt East to lose.

Coach Lenny Raley is disappointed to have another loss, but he does notice that there were a few positives. “We all want to win, so it is disappointing to have another loss. There were some positives, but overall, we are not there, yet. I hope that within the next month, this team performs better, and will be more consistent,” Raley said. Before the tournament, from this game, Raley hoped that the team would be, “more consistent in their scoring.”

He feels that team wasn’t as consistent, as they should have been, in a couple of spots. “Not as consistent as we need, but some really good scores. There are no excuses. We are really young in some spots, and they just have not had an opportunity to bowl enough,” Raley said. In Raley’s opinion, a few highlights from the game was: “In our second game, David Scholtz led the way with 246, and Austin Hale was right behind in 231. Adam Young rolled 191 on his first game. Maria Shofner bowled well.”

Senior Adam Young feels that the game went alright. “I think it went well, with us bowling. We bowled good, and we had some good scores, in the second game, as well, but it still wasn’t enough to win,” Young said, “I, myself, struggled a bit, but all my teammates were doing good. Austin bowled a 230 game, and David bowled a 246. I’m pretty sure, both the second game. Those scores were what we needed, but yeah; all of us feel we did good, but it still wasn’t enough to win.” He believes that he struggled a bit, but some of his teammates played pretty good. 

Young noticed some highlights from the game. “We bowled a 200 game in baker’s, the first game, and like I said: Austin Hale, and David Scholtz, had high 200 games. That’s pretty much it, though,” Young said.

Before the tournament, but after this game, Young wanted to improve by, literally, just practicing more. “Just getting in the alley, and practicing more, and preparing,” Young said, “I feel it (the tournament) might go decently well. As I said, we bowled a good baker’s game, the first one, and if we can just repeat that, we can do good.” From the information from this game, he believed that the upcoming tournament would go well.

The eight bowlers that represented the team, at this tournament, were senior Adam Young, junior Austin Hale, sophomore David Scholtz, freshman Jake Shofner, seventh-grader Maria Shofner, sophomore Austin Graham, seventh-grader Alexis Yowell and junior Logan Riley. There were two regular games, and eight baker’s games.

Bullitt East placed ninth out of ten teams. “We scored 542, and 547, for 1089, in our first game. 422, and 488, for 910, in our second game. Baker scores were 216, 147, 127, 118, 135, 115, 136, and 150, for a total of 1144, for bakers. Our total pins for the match were 3143,” Raley said.

Raley believes that the tournament was kind of alright, for the team. “It was a good experience for everyone. There were two regular games, and eight baker’s games. I used all eight players throughout the tournament. We had some good individual scores. We just still have to continue to work to get better, by the region match,” Raley said, “We started out okay, but the second game was not as good. When we got to bakers, we started with a really strong 216 game. I moved a lot of people around, and we did not get close to that score again. I was hoping that we would have higher scores. Being our first tournament, we gained valuable experience.” He feels that the team played okay.

Raley noticed a few highlights from the tournament. “Austin Hale bowled a really strong first game, with a 224. Jake Shofner also bowled a great game, at 203. Adam Young was very solid at 191, and he matched the same score his second game. David Scholtz was solid in both games with scores of 172 and 184. Austin Graham was also steady at 151, and 157,” Raley said.

Raley’s plan for improvement is for the team to be more consistent, and have more confidence. “I feel a lot of it is handling the game, mentally. So, that is completely on each bowler, to have confidence in themselves. They need to focus on one ball at a time. Relax, and stay focused, each and every time they step up to the line,” Raley said, “Like all team sports, everyone must contribute strongly, and we just have to keep working to improve, and be consistent.”

Young does feel that he has gotten used to bowling under the conditions of COVID-19. “Yeah. I’m used to it now, mainly because we just got to always keep our masks on,” Young said.

The next game will be Tuesday, Feb. 23, against Fairdale, at Fern Bowl.